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THE WORLD'S 

APPROACHING 

CRISIS 



BY THE EDITOR OF 

"GRACE AND TRUTH" 




PUBLISHED BY 
L. P. ADAMS, PUBLISHER 

MEMPHIS, T£NN. 



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CONTENTS 

1. Foreword 5 

2. Outline of the Last Days 8 

3. Moving Toward the End of the Age 10 

!) 

4. Lax Moral Conditions, Sign 

5 OF THE End 16 

5. Present Conditions, Sign of 

Christ's Coming 20 

6. The Spirit of Antichrist 26 

7. The Antichrist 33 

8. The Antichrist and His Associate 42 

9. The Present European War not 

the Battle of Armageddon 52 

10. Napoleon a Forerunner of 

Antichrist 57 

11. The Midnight Cry 62 

12. Babylon Fallen, the Beast and 

False Prophet Taken 77 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 



FOEEWORD. 



In this book we are not to endeavor to set 
forth new doctrines, or new theories, but to 
speak of unfulfilled phophesies in the light of 
the Bible at this time of the closing of the sixth 
age of the world. Nothing so interested the 
prophets as the foreshowing of things to come. 
Peter tells us that they "inquired and searched 
diligently, searching what, or what manner of 
time the Spirit which was in them did signify, 
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of 
Christ, and the glory that should follow." 
Daniels' whole soul was almost drawn out of 
him by the intensity of his interest, study, fast- 
ing and prayer with regard to what was fore- 
shown him. But what is the temper of our 
modern theologians on the subject of prophecy! 
The common idea is that a man is a little be- 
side himself, and departs from proper soberness 
if he ventures to give any serious attention to 
unfulfilled prophecy. Though God has been 
at the pains to tell us much about what is yet 
to come, many would warn us away from it as 
dangerous ground, and tell us that we unwar- 
rantabi}^ intrude into the secrets of the Al- 
mighty if we undertake to read it^ or entertaia 



6 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

any definite expectation with regard to it. The 
popular idea is that prophecy is not meant to 
be understood until after it is fulfilled — that 
to found any faith upon it is fanaticism — that 
none but crazed minds ever bother themselves 
about it one way or the other. According to 
these sober thinkers, the prophets w ere the silli- 
est of men to concern themselves about what 
they were commissioned to foretell, and Daniel 
was particularly foolish to let his soul be 
troubled concerning these visions of things in 
the distant ages. But this is just tlie difference 
between the true and acknowledged servants 
of God, and those who claim to be tlieir brethren 
and successors in our day. 

Whatever the Holy Ghost made known to the 
Fathers concerning the future dealings of God 
with this world, was sacredly treasured and 
studied as the most precious of communica- 
tions, dwelt upon with the most special interest 
and heeded as the guiding light of God amid 
the world's abounding wickedness and dark- 
ness. But our modern teachers think to ignore 
and avoid what is written about the future by 
holy men as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost, is the higher wisdom and the better 
piety. "For the prophecy came not in old time 
by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake 
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (II 
Peter 1 :21.) And if the subject is pressed upon 
them that satisfy themselves, and their hearers 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 7 

by saying, it is not for us to read on such holy 
ground, and that it was never intended for us 
to understand these deep mysteries. And th'as 
a vast and vitally interesting part of God's 
revelation is turned into a useless encumbrance 
of the sacred word. Ood says, "Write the 
vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he 
may run that readeth it." But men seem to 
have become wiser than the i^lmighty, and 
know better what becomes of a sober theologian 
and a right preacher; and we must shut the 
book and close our mouths about it, or consent 
to be accounted mad ! Alas, alas, for the reign- 
ing religion of this day. If we would be like 
the holy prophets, and prove ourselves their 
followers we must have an eye, an ear and a 
heart for their sacred words concerning what 
must shortly come to pass. Every utterance 
of the Lord which tells what we are to look 
for and expect is most precious. And as you 
value your safety in these ominous and perplex- 
ing times, and would be ready for what is 
about to come upon the earth, beware how you 
ignore or neglect what God has caused to be 
written for our learning, lest the great ap- 
pointed day should overtake you unawares. 
(Luke 21:34-36; Acts 17:30, 31.) We are now 
in the time of the end ; the times of the Gentiles 
is fulfilled. There is upon this earth, distress 
of nations with perplexity; the sea and the 
waves are roaring; men's hearts failing them 



8 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

for fear. The great powers are being shaken, 
and kingdoms crumbling. The world is rapidly 
preparing for "The Man of Sin," the Anti- 
Christ, whom Israel will receive as their ruler 
and whom the whole world will wonder after 
with great admiration. We are now fast ap- 
proaching his coming in the present European 
war and world-wide distress and disturbed con- 
dition of the people. Everything is getting 
ready for him. The present war will end at his 
appearing and all the powers will be in federa- 
tion, and he will be the chief ruler over the 
kingdoms for forty-two months. (Rev. 13 :5.) 
His reign will be the period of the great trib- 
ulation. (Dan. 12:1, 2; Mat. 24:21.) It seems 
clear now that Constantinople will fall (if not 
burned), the Turks be driven out, and Israel 
(be gathered back to Palestine where they make 
a covenant with Anti-Christ for seven years. 
(Dan. 9 :27.) To this period the world is hasten- 
ing, and even now we are in the shadow of it, 
and the world will soon be in the grasp of the 
lawless one, who will sit in the rebuilt temple 
of God, at Jerusalem, setting himself forth as 
God. Be watchful and prayerful that you may 
escape all that is coming upon the earth and 
stand before the Son of Man. 



AN OUTLINE OF THE LAST DAYS. 



1. The present European war and world- 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 9 

wide distress with deepening shadows over all 
the earth. 

2. Some time between this and the next 
scene will be the first (I Thes. 4:13-18) resur- 
rection and the catching away (translation) 
of the ready and waiting ones to r.ie .-t the Lord, 
where they are kept from the great tribula- 
tions. (Isa. 26:19-21; Mat. 24:21.) 

3. The complete overturning of the present 
world powers and shaking of nations, ending 
with the formation of .ten federated kingdoms. 

4. The ousting of the Turk from Palestine, 
and the gathering of Israel back into their own 
land (Jer. 16:14, 15; Amos 9:11-15), the ap- 
pearing of the man of sin, the son of perdition, 
the beast from the troubled sea with seven 
heads and ten horns (Rev. 13:1) which is Anti- 
Christ (I John 2:18; 4:3), who will make a 
covenant with Israel for one week (seven years 
of complete time) as their Messiah-king, seated 
in the temple at Jerusalem (Dan. 9 :27 ; II Thes. 
2:3-12), and is the chief ruler in the federated 
kingdoms over all the earth. 

5. The two-horned beast from the earth to 
have control under the Anti-Christ in a new 
religion and worship. The earth represents es- 
tablished civilization of humanity with re- 
ligious forms. 

6. The great tribulation over all the world. 
The last three and a half years of Daniel's 
week (Dan. 9:27) will be such a time of trouble 



10 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

as the world never saw. (Dan. 12:1, 2; Amos 
8:9-12; Zeph. 1:14-18; Rev. 14 to 16:11.) 

7. The battle of Armageddon under the 
sixth vial (Rev. 16:12-16), when the kings of 
the earth and the whole world are gathered to 
battle in the plains of Esdraelon in Palestine, 
which is the valley of Jehosaphat. (Joel 3 :1-17 ; 
Rev. 14:14-19.) 

8. The close of the great tribulation, the 
earth darkened in a clear day, great Babylon 
falls, the beast and the false prophet are taken 
alive and cast into the lake of fire, and the rem- 
nant are slain with the sword of Him that sit- 
teth upon the horse. (Amos 9 :9 ; Rev. 17, 
18, 19.) 

9. The binding of Satan in the bottomless 
pit. (Rev. 20:1-3.) 

10. Christ's reign as king of kings and lords. 
(Zech. 14:9, 16; Mat. 2:5; Luke 1:32, 33.) 

11. Satan loosed at the end of the thousand 
years (Rev. 20:3, 7), and is cast into the lake 
of fire where the beast and the false prophet 
are (Rev. 20:10). 

12. Great white throne judgment where the 
dead stand before God, and judged out of the 
tooks (Rev. 20:11-15). Then follows a new 
heaven and a new earth. (Rev. 21.) 



MOVING TOWARD THE END OF THIS AGE. 



Those who have only the wisdom of the 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 11 

world think that the war will move the shadow 
of the world's dial of progress backward many 
degrees. But, instead of that, it marks a, step 
of progress in the onward move toward the 
final end. It is one of the sign-posts telling 
how far we have gone. The present order of 
the kingdoms of this world will end. God did 
not set them up, and He is not the ruling king 
in them. The present order and conditions of 
things in this world will end, and the present 
'breaking up of the powers, and the kingdoms 
rising against kingdom, and nation against na- 
tion is only the prophecy being fulfilled — ^speak- 
ing unmistakably to us of the end of the pres- 
ent order of things. "We have gone from the 
head of gold in Daniel's vision to the toes of 
iron and clay. The ten kingdoms, partly vreak 
and partly strong. The idea of the world's 
leading thinkers is that they are getting strong- 
er and greater, but God has decreed different- 
ly. The great rulers and war-lords do not 
want to admit defeat. They do not want to ad- 
mit their end has come, and that their king- 
doms shall fall. But that is just what the 
present conflict means. This is beyond ques- 
tion the day of God's preparation, and as such 
it has to do with the Gentiles, Israel and the 
Church of God. As to the Church, we are in 
the time of the "ten virgins," but not yet come 
to the time of Mat. 25 : 31-46. We are now in 
the third chapter of Revelations. Here we 



12 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

have the Church in its last stage. Here we 
have the Church in Philadelphia — "brotherly 
love," which had kept the words of His pa- 
tience, and which He has promised to keep from, 
the great tribulation which shall come upon all 
the world (Dan. 12:1; Mat. 24:21; Rev. 13:3). 
We also have the Church of the Laodiceans — 
*'to please the people," where He stands (out- 
side) at the door knocking and warning them 
to repent and return to their first love. Even 
in this late hour they have a chance to escape 
if they will. We have not yet passed Revela- 
tions' fourth chapter and first verse. The true 
and righteous people of God (His Church) are 
being called to a closer walk with Him, and as 
such they are more and more separated from 
the forms, fashions, customs and spirit which 
dominates this present world, and as a result 
they will finally be rejected, as was their Lord. 
The Spirit that rules in heaven is opposed by 
the spirit that rules "this present evil world." 
And as it rejected Christ, the Lord from heaven, 
and put Him away, so will those who are born 
from above and have made a covenant with 
Him, be rejected and put away. They may not 
be beheaded or burned at the stake just yet, 
but they will be put away in an ecclesiastical 
manner, and persecuted in the manner of the 
early Church. Religion is a very popular thing 
if you will leave Christ, the atonement and the 
Holy Ghost out, and merely exist in a name, 



THE Vv'ORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 13 

havir.g a form without the power. But for it 
to be more .popular, and to meet the notions 
and desires of carnal men, it must be organized 
and incorporated in the government. 

Napoleon, who caused the death of not less 
than eight million of mankind, said : ' ' The peo- 
ple must have a religion, and this religion must 
be in the hands of the government." 

We have arrived at the time that man has a 
religion, that religion is in the iron clutches of 
the world's power, and man has grown wiser 
than his maker. 

Babylon, Greece, Persia, Assyria and Egypt 
were all the lovers and defenders of organized 
falsehood in religion, the foster friends of all 
manner of spiritual harlotry. Nimrod, the 
hunter of the sons of men (Gen. 10: 8-10) and 
author of despotic government, intertwined the 
worship of idols with the standard of his power. 

It was so with all the rest who followed, and 
it will be so with the last, which is yet to come, 
as declared in all the prophecies in the Book 
of God upon the subject. Spiritual harlotry 
has ever been the particular pet and delight of 
all the beast-powers of time. True religion 
with the stamp of God's approval, and an un- 
corrupted church, with His power upon it, have 
never suited the representatives of power. 

The carnally minded have always clamored 
for a religion which would not disturb them 
in their sins, or correct them in their living, 



14 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

and that would eommend itself to the popular 
idea of those high in authority. A religion 
they could have without repenting, and which 
did not require prayerfulness and humble de- 
votion to Jehovah. The world has just such 
a religion at his present time, with all holy 
restraints laid aside and the Word of Grod ig- 
nored, or reducing it to a lot of documents 
gathered from a thousand sources representing 
inspiration that equals only gifted minds all 
through history, such as Emerson, Cambell (of 
the New Theology), Ingersoll and all the rest of 
them. That is the trend of today of scientific 
thought and philosophy, and of the New Theol- 
ogy — to exalt men, and to reduce God through 
it, and to tie Him up iby natural laws and con- 
ditions He has created Himself. This is the age 
of humanity. It is the age when intellectual 
man, and the huge corporations of business, 
and the newspaper, the college, the university, 
fine art, and the rest of their kind, are going 
to do the business. You see it on every side. 
It stares you in the face at every turn. Such 
times call to our mind the exclamatory in- 
quiry, "Will the Son of Man find faith on the 
earth when He comes?" 

What, then, is our calling at such a time as 
this? Surely it is to be witnesses for the 
supernatural in its uttermost extent of mean- 
ing. To stand up as the Book stands up, and 
say, "In the beginning God" — not the deifiea- 



THE WORLD^S APPROACHING CRISIS. 15 

tion of man, not evolution, not "New Thought," 
'but, "In the beginning God," and in the end, 
"He shall have delivered up the kingdom to the 
Father, that God may be all in all." God, the 
first and the last, and all the way through. 
That is our calling, to testify to the living God 
as our all sufficiency. 

This is a time of extraordinary progress, a 
time of intense living, when every thing is 
moving fast, when the world has reached a de- 
gree of civilization it never knew before, and 
when man is in the ascendant. 

Wealth, culture and pleasure are absorbing 
the minds of men, and they are spending their 
vast amounts of money on fine art of pleasure, 
to the theater, ballroom, and dress parade, mu- 
sic and the summer vacation. These, with all 
loose principles, loose restraints in home and so- 
ciety, and laxity in business, corruption in poli- 
ties, and a condition of things that is gradually 
debauching public opinion, mark the times as 
awful perilous, and close to the coming of the 
"lawless one," to take control of the affairs 
of this "present evil world," and to be wor- 
shiped 'hy an apostate church, and the de- 
luded nations. 

Speaking of the Man of Sin and his reign, 
Paul writes that that day shall not come "ex- 
cept there come a falling away first." There is 
then to be a general sinking from the true faith, 
and the substitution of human conceits, philos- 



16 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

opliies, and "science falsely so-called," in the 
place of Divine Truth, eating away the sub- 
stance of true religion, and weakening its hold 
on the hearts and minds of men. 

Paul says by the Spirit, that in the last days 
many shall depart from the faith, giving heed 
to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. 
And when men turn from the only infallible 
truth of God, and from the saving faith of 
Christ, there is nothing left for them but strong 
delusions, given over to believe a lie, and the 
only inevitable result can be "that they all 
might be damned." 



LAX MORAL CONDITIONS, SIGN OF THE 
END. 



Upon the sacred pages we have prophetic 
utterances of a most solemn warning to the 
Church of our times, and for all the days yet 
to come, to beware of the fascinating flatteries 
and secularizing expedients and compliances 
which, in the self-idolizing spirit of spurious 
charity, specious liberality and heartless skepti- 
cism, would tempt her to forget her divine 
•origin and heavenly destiny. There is a de- 
ceitful spirit abroad which would have the 
Church rescind her sacred obligations, cancel 
her authentic commission, and assimilate her- 
self to a mere conventional institution. They 
call it a liberalizing spirit, a spirit of improve- 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 17 

ment, a spirit of unity and '.brotherhood in the 
betterment of humanity and character build- 
ing. But it is a deceiving spirit in that that 
they substitute reformation for regeneration, 
character-building for growth in grace, and 
prestige for power. And it is a spirit which is 
prone to treat the Holy Scriptures as mere 
human lucubrations of worthy men before the 
ages of better light, rationalize all the defi- 
nite teachings of the Saviour and His apostles 
into mere theories, dissolve the sacred sacra- 
ments into visionary shadows without life or 
power, and dismantle the ministry of its au- 
thority as if it never had a sacred calling and 
right to be regarded as the appointment of God 
for conveying and imparting to lost man the 
■divine truth of redemption through faith in 
God's Son, and only restorative gifts of Jeho- 
vah's grace. 

It is the spirit of anti-Christ. And more and 
more will this spirit strengthen till it has ef- 
fectually done its work. Paul tells us that in 
the last da^^s men will not endure sound doc- 
trine, but after their own lusts (evil desires) 
shall heap to themselves teachers, having itch- 
ing ears, and turn away their ears from the 
truth, and shall be turned unto fables (2 Tim, 
4: 1-4). That men would throw off true piety 
and sobermindedness, and become lovers of 
their own selves, ^boasters, proud, iblasphemers, 
mockers, unthankful, heartless, unholy, with- 



18 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

out natural affections, false accusers, despisers 
of those that are good; having a form of god- 
liness but denying the power thereof. "Now 
the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the lat- 
ter times some shall depart from the faith, 
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrine 
of devils." (2 Tim. 3: 1-5). How marvelous 
it is that we are at this hour living in these 
days prophecied by the apostle. And thus, 
by the compromises, apostasies and general hea- 
thenizing and secularizing of holy things on 
the part of the ambassadors of truth and faith, 
the final full-blown anti-Christ shall come as 
the just judgment of the Almighty God upon 
those who corrupted His way, and thus paved 
the way for the usurping ruler. 

Oh, my friends, is it not a time to be alarmed 
as we behold the awful prevailing wickedness 
in the land, and to fully know that many 
church members and the leaders of the pre- 
vailing religious sentiment of this presnt day 
are sowing for a harvest of miseries of which 
they little dream? Paul said that day of anti- 
Christ would not come until there was first 
a falling away (2 Thes. 2:3). That day is now, 
and worse and worse shall it be las those who 
profess faith in Christ fall away, and even deny 
the Lord that bought them, and bring upon 
themselves swift destruction, causing the word 
of truth to be evil spoken of (2 Pet. 2: 1-2). 
By the light of holy prophecy we can see it 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CrSISIo. 15 

coming like an overwhelming flood. By the 
emptiness of faith and wasting of life, which 
persist in covering themselves with the name 
of Christianity, myriads who would be honest 
with themselves are stumbling and falling, and 
filling up the ranks of downright infidelity and 
atheism; and by the delusive promises of peace 
and universal brotherhood on the lips of those 
who think they are leading the vanguard of 
the Lord's host, myriads on myriads more are 
being deceived and betrayed to bitter disap- 
pointment, and helpless miseries in this world, 
and eternal discomfiture in the world to come. 
The increasing laxness on the part of those who 
are the professed leaders of the people, are bold 
to assert, that it is with them a matter of se- 
rious doubt whether there is any Grod but Na- 
ture, any retribution but what they get ia thig 
world, and soul to live aftsr thk lif% mid monk 
all idea of personal incarnation of Dsity, of 
atonement by sacrifice, redemption by faith in 
the merits of the blood of Christ, of any com- 
ing again of the Lord of Glory to judge the 
world in righteousness and to reign on the 
throne of His father David (Rev. 19::1; Luke 
1: 31-33). 

The spirit of this present closing age is to 
throw off all gosepel restraints, shun the truth, 
and substitute error, dethrone Christ, enthrone 
self, and worship at the shrine of pleasure, 



20 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

and to live as there was no God, no judgment 
and no coming day of retribution for sin. 



PRESENT CONDITIONS, SIGN OF CHRIST'S 
COMING. 



The Old Testament has a twofold prophecy 
concerning Christ's coming. It speaks of His 
first coming as the Saviour. To give Himself 
a ransom. To be the mediator between God and 
man. To be a perfect sacrifice for sin, and the 
author of eternal salvation. And, after hav- 
ing put away sin (Heb. 9: 24-26), He was re- 
ceived up into heaven, and entered upon His 
office as our Great High Priest, where he ever 
liveth to make intercession for us (Heb. 4: 
15, 7: 25, 26). His first coming was to visit 
the Gentiles to take out of them a people for 
His name, and after this to return (Amos 9 :11, 
12 ; Acts 15 : 13-17) . Between His first and sec- 
ond coming the gospel of the kingdom was to 
be preached in all the world for a witness 
unto all nations, "and then shall the end come'* 
(Mat. 24:14). In His first coming He spoke 
to the people as a prophet, "A prophet shall 
the Lord God raise up unto you of your own 
brethren, and every soul that will not hear 
that prophet shall be destroj^ed from among 
the people" (Acts 3: 19-26). And He shall 
send Jesus Christ, who was before preached 
unto you, whom the heaven must receive until 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 21 

the times of the restitution of all things." So 
having fulfilled His office as a prophet, and 
having put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, 
and having returned to the right hand of God 
(Acts 7: 55, 56), He is now fulfilling the office 
of High Priest. And when this is done. He 
says: "After this I will return, and vnll build 
again the tabernacle of David, and I will bring 
again the captivity of my people Israel, and 1 
will plant them upon their land, and they shall 
no more be pulled up out of their land, which I 
have given them, saith the Lord thy God" (Acts 
15: 16-18; Amos 9: 11-15). The second per- 
sonal coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is the 
one certain future event to take place and that 
very soon. Probably sooner than any one thinks 
now. But before His coming some events must 
transpire, some things must come to pass. 

There will be signs of His appearing. When 
He sat upon the Mount of Olives His disciples 
said' unto Him, "Tell us, when shall these 
things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy 
coming, and the end of the (age) wor'd?" A 
sign means a signal, a token. It is literally 
a notice of something ahead. It serves to put 
you on guard regarding the thing which is 
to follow, and that the event is about to take 
place which it notifies you of. If we see these 
signals and take the warning which He intends 
they shall serve on us, we know we are fol- 
lowing in His leadings. But all who are without 



22 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

Tinderstanding as to His signals, and who do 
not know to what these signs point, are blind 
and deaf as to the things of God, and the 
things which shall shortly come to pass (2 Pet. 
1 : 9-12). No one dares to deny but that we are 
right upon the threshold of a crisis in the af- 
fairs of this world, and that it will bring a 
complete change in the order of things all over 
the whole world. The Lord, in speaking of 
the nations and kingdoms at war with each 
other, and famines and earthquakes in divers 
places, said, ''All these are the beginning of 
sorrows." And, be it remembered, that in this 
prophecy concerning nations rising against na- 
tion was one of the signs of His coming. There 
has never been since Christ was upon earth 
a more sure sign, and a more "sure word of 
prophecy" indicating the soon return of our 
Lord than the present European war. This 
is the time of breaking up the powers, over- 
throwing kingdoms, and preparing the way for 
the return of Israel to Palestine, and the com- 
ing of anti-Christ. 

"Peace and safety" (1 Thes. 5:3). How re- 
markable it is to know that this present war be- 
gun to dawn when Andrew Carnegie begun his 
"Peace Temple" at the Hague. Since its plans 
were adopted and they begun to say, "Peace 
and safety," there has been wars and rumors of 
wars. "When it was decided to build it, the Ang- 
lo-Boer war broke out. With the adoption of 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 23 

the plans came tlie Russo-Japanese war. The 
first stone was laid on the day Kaiser Wil- 
liam started out for Tangier and inaugurated 
the Moroccan European complications. Austria 
emphasized the completion of the first story of 
the "Temple of Peace" by grabbing Bosnia and 
Herzegovina. 

At the completion of the second story there 
were rumors of war between France and Ger- 
many. And as the roof was being put on, Italy 
and Turkey were at war. And from that time 
until the present European war there has been a 
lowering of the war-clouds, and a deep rumb- 
ling unrest among the nations, indicating more 
war and greater trouble. Never in the history 
of the world was there as many nations at war 
as at this present hour. The whole world is in a 
state of unrest, and worst of all, there is no 
star of hope rising that seems to indicate a bet- 
ter condition of things. It is the time of God's 
judgments, and all the powers, kingdoms and 
nations must yet be mightily broken up, and 
cast down until they recognize Him, whose right 
it is to rule. The nations have forgot God (ts. 
9:17), and have run after greed and gain, war- 
ring and killing each other over God's earth, 
until now He has risen up, and begun to move 
in His awful judgments against world-ralers 
and war-lords, and to plead with all flesh with 
the sword and the fire." "A noise (report) 
ghall come even to the ends of the earth ; for 



24 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

the Lord has a controversy with the nation's. 
He will plead with all flesh ; He will give them 
that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. 
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall 
go from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind 
shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. 
The slain of the Lord shall be at that day from 
one end of the earth even unto the other end 
of the earth : they shall not be lamented, nei- 
ther gathered nor buried; they shau oe dung 
upon the ground" (Jer. 25: 31-35), God, in 
speaking to Israel about gathering them from 
all places whither He had scattered, says of 
the nations among who'm they dwell: "For, lo, 
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring 
lagain the captivity of my people Israel and -Ju- 
dah, saith the Lord ; and I will cause them to 
return to the land that I gave to their fathers, 
and they shall possess it. For I am with thee, 
saith the Lord, to save thee : though I make a 
full end of all nations whither I have scattered 
thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee" 
(Jer. 30: 3-11). "Behold, the eyes of the Lord 
God are upon the sinful kingdoms, and I will 
destroy it from off the face of the earth: sav- 
ing that I will not utterly destroy the House 
of Jacob, saith the Lord. For, lo, I will com- 
mand, and I will sift the house of Israel among 
all nations like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet 
shall not the least grain fall to the ground" 
(Amos 9 : 8, 9). And this is just what the Lord 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 25 

is doing now. He is overthrowing kingdoms 
and shaking nations as a sieve to gather His 
people out from all countries and from among 
all nations to bring them back into their own 
land which God gave their fathers for an ever- 
lasting possession. The Jews are suffering aw- 
ful torture in Poland. Robbed, maltreated, 
shot and hanged. Letters from there say both 
armies persecute the Jews. Brother tells broth- 
er how^ father was slain. There are more Jews 
in war-stricken Poland than anywhere else in 
the world, and their condition is today worse 
than at any time in their history. Surely "the 
time of Jacob's trouble" has begun (Jer. 30:7). 
As God is shaking the nations, He will move the 
Turk out of Palestine, and move His ancient 
people back into it. And in connection with 
His promise to gather them back, we have an- 
other promise to rebuild the tabernacle. "In 
that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David 
that is fallen, and close up the breaches there- 
of; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will 
build it as in the days of old. And I will bring 
again the captivity of my people Israel, and 
they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit 
them ; and they shall plant vineyards and drink 
the wine therof ; they shall make gardens, and 
eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them 
upon their land, and they shall no more be 
pulled up O'Ut of their land which I have given 
them, saith the Lord thy God." (Amos 9: 11- 
15). 



26 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

TEE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST. 



"For the spirit of iniquity doth already 
work" 2 Thes. 2:7). "And this is that spirit 
of anti-Christ wherof ye have heard that it 
should come ; and even now already it is in the 
world" (I John 4:3). The Scriptures call this 
anti-'Christ, which is soon to appear, "the son 
of perdition," "that man of sin," "the lawless 
one." Anti-Christ exists in all past ages, but 
only as a working spirit, which has not yet 
come to its final development and concentrated 
embodiment. It is this lawless one which the 
world is so rapidly preparing for. 

Look at this world from any standpoint you 
may, and you will see that present conditions 
demand such a mighty world ruler as the Bible 
speaks of him to be. Long time the world has 
been in preparation for him, and looking for 
him, and now his appearing is near. 

Everywhere and in all circles of teachings 
we hear about the "Coming Man." The idea 
is not fancy, myth nor play on words. 
It expresses something which is inlaid in the 
theories and principles, which, in some way, 
are governing the thinking and expectations of 
the great mass of the most active minds. The 
feeling and constant implications everywhere 
is, that nothing is settled. And that the great 
problems of human life, including society, gov- 
ernment, philosophy and religion, all remain 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 27 

to be solved. That there remains to be wrought 
out a thorough reconstruction in all earthly- 
affairs on other foundations than those which 
have served mankind in past ages, and that 
there must come a new order of the social 
fabric, with new regulating forces, exhibiting 
another style of man in all the relations of life. 
The tendency of the hour is to cut loose from 
the time-honored laws and institutes of Jeho- 
vah. And with this manifest tendency of things 
before our eyes, and the accepted thinkers of 
the world, including many among the most in- 
fluential in the professed church of God, the 
Christ of our salvation, and denying both the 
Father and the Son 'by the philosophies they 
entertain — what is it but the preparing of the 
way for the anti-Christ, and the manifest token 
of the nearness of his revelation? 

The result will he the sorest plague the earth 
has ever felt, bringing with it all the awful 
disasters of the last great catastrophe. 

God is about to deal with this world as He 
never before has dealt with it, and everything 
is maturing fast for the final stroke. Men are 
now busy with their plans and think to work 
out sublime results by their endeavor. They 
are fondly hoping soon to see the world set 
right. By their increased and improved ma- 
chinery of education, social reform, law-mak- 
ing and popular legislation, they are expecting 
to see all disabilities removed, and some day 



28 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

behold perfect order. But their hopes are false- 
ly grounded. All this building on the re- 
forms, efforts and all such reasoning is in a 
line which makes a Saviour for the world who 
is not the Christ, but the anti-Christ. If men 
will put the rule of heaven out, they necessarily 
put the rule of hell in. Apostasy paves the 
way for the anti-'Christ, and the reign of the 
anti^Christ is the overturning of all the founda- 
tions on which the social world rests, entailing 
a condition of trouble the greatest that has 
ever been or that will be heretafter. Wars, out- 
rages and bloody confusion mark the days of 
His coming. All over the world nation shall 
be dashed against nation, and power fight with 
power, one kingdom after another falling, and 
sink beneath the overwhelming flood of vio- 
lence and desolation. At this hour every read- 
er knows we are now in the very beginning of 
such times. Jesus called such times as these 
"the beginning of sorrow." The word says 
His coming is "after the working with Satan 
with all power and signs and lying wonders," 
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness 
in them that perish, because they received not 
the love of the truth that they might be saved." 
"After the working of Satan." It is Sa- 
tan's work to substitute a lie for the truth, 
and to deceive the people and lead them away 
after error in their own carnal and fleshly rea- 
sonings. Man, naturally, in his fallen state, 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 29 

does not want truth. Error suits Mm better. 
It is a more congenial clime for liim. He feels 
better in iiis sinful state when he is mantled in 
error. Light from the eternal word is not 
inviting to his darkened heart. He hates the 
light of life that was in Christ. The darkness 
in him comprehends it not (John 1 :4). 

"With all power." "Ajid power was given 
him over all kindreds, and tongues and na- 
tions." "And the Dragon (Satan) gave him 
power, and his seat, and great authority." 
(Rev. 13: 2-7). 

Just as God gave to Christ His Son all power 
in heaven and earth, so S^atan will give the 
Beast (anti-Christ), his "son of perdition," 
great power and authority over all the earth, 
and all who have not their names written in 
"the book of life" shall worship him. And in 
worshiping the Beast, they are literally wor- 
shiping the devil, the father of lies, the de- 
ceiver of the nations. Wilfulness is given as 
the fundamental thing in the character of the 
"Man of Sin," the anti-Christ. In Daniel 11: 
36 it is stated of him: "And the king shall be 
according to his will." Wilfulness is the es- 
sence of sin. It was the sin of fallen angels, 
and it was the sin of Adam. There is nothing 
more anti-Christian, no enormity of crime that 
can go beyond it. The law of the anti-Christ 
is Wilfulness. Paul said, "The spirit of iniq- 
uity doth already work." And it is this wil- 



30 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

fulness of sin that rejects the holy will of 
God. paves the way for the coming of the "law- 
less one," and accepts him as the messiah-king. 

"Signs and lying wonders, and with all de- 
ceivableness of unrighteousness in them that 
perish, because they received not the love of 
the truth" — but what? But had pleasure in 
unrighteousness." Everything out of the will 
and order of God is unrighteous, and that is 
the highway over which "the wilful king is 
conducted to his throne. At present God does 
not permit men to fully act out their will. By 
his providence He throws restraints about them 
and hinders them from going beyond certain 
limits. But the time is soon when "He that 
hindreth" will be taken out of the way, and the 
despisers of truth be given over to act out their 
own perverseness to the full, and because they 
have preferred Satan's error to God's righteous 
rule, Satan can bring about all his plans and 
delude his subjects to the utmost. 

The kingdom of God is for the poor in spirit. 
The meek are to inherit the earth. The royal 
road to exaltation before God is humility. What- 
ever differs from this is the spirit of anti- 
Christ; and to be a subject of anti-Christ 
means certain damnation. 

How little do men dream of the horrors they 
are preparing for the world by their aposta- 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 31 

(sies from God, His word, His Son, and by the 
Satanic philosophies which they persist in put- 
ting in the place of His holy revelations. 

Fain would we pray and preach that man 
may not he so deluded; but the masses haVe 
already sold themselves to the devil, and been 
filled with the wilful spirit of the coming an- 
ti-Christ. They have 'broken away from the 
/sacred influences, laid aside the ties of heav- 
enly obligations, gone into agreement with 
hell (Isa. 28:15), taken captive by the will of 
the deceiver, and no hope remains save for the 
few who may be snatched as brands from the 
fire (Jude 23). 

The intellectual greatness of our times is 
summed up in a vaunting materialism, which 
finds its life and crown, inspections and manip- 
ulations of the lower element, till it has come to 
be concluded in leading circles of scientists, 
that everything is derivable from earth, with- 
out a personal, supernatural God or need of 
revlation from Him. That man in himself is 
good, great, noble and wise, and that he is 
his own God. This is the prevailing spirit of 
the last days — of the popular theories, edu- 
cation, politics, and legislation of the modern 
reforms, w^hich proposes to do away with human 
ills without recognition of the eternal word and 
power of Jehovah. And the last day delusions 
of the false teachers (2 Pet. 2 :1), "who changed 
the truth of God into a lie" (Rom. 1:25), and 



S2 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

boast of having outgrown the misty ideas of 
holy men of old, and that they are living in 
a more enlightened (?) age, therefore have a 
right to put the modern day interpretation on 
the sacred Scriptures. That they have a right 
to leave out all or any part of the word, which 
does not appeal to sound (?) human reason, or 
weigh correctly in the balances of the great ( ?) 
human intellects of these enlightened days. 
This spirit of anti-Christ is eating away the 
vital substance of all sound doctrine. There- 
fore, they are so corrupted in mind that they 
will not endure sound doctrine, and have turned 
away their ears from the truth, and turned 
unto fables (fiction), heaping to themselves 
teachers, having itching ears (2 Tim. 4: 2-5). 
If we dig down into the inner kernel of modern 
thought we will find lodged there, in one form 
or another, and more or less swaying the spirit 
of this closing age, a doctrine which enthrones, 
adores and worships Progress as the great hope 
of the world, hold man to be an ever improving 
growth, and practically accepts evolution as 
the bringer of a glorious reign of wisdom, peace 
and blessedness (yet to come), without the need 
of any kingdom to be brought to us from heav- 
en (Dan. 2:44), or any changes by the miracu- 
lous poAver of God. This is the sum of the 
teachings of the modern schools and theologies 
of this day. The heart, pulse, and ruling ideas 
of these last times exhibit all the indications 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 33 

of that very apostasy, or "falling away", which 
the apostle foreannouneed as the fore-runner, 
beginner, spirit and cause of the "Man of 
Sin" and his disastrous revelation. The seed is 
planted and growing, and meets in this closing 
age a congenial season for rapid development 
and speedy maturity. 



THE ANTICHRIST. 



In the preeeding chapter we wrote concern- 
ing "The spirit of Antichrist." In this chap- 
ter we shall write concerning the Antichrist 
himself, his appearing, his reign and his end. 
The present working of the "spirit of evil" in 
this closing age clearly demonstrates that the 
"Man of Sin" will soon appear, and take charge 
of the affairs of this world under the direct 
control of Satan. To many thousands all over 
the world this is a dark subject and very little 
thought on, and less understood. Nevertheless, 
it is a Bible truth, left tg us by "holy men of 
old," who wrote as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost. It is the truth of holy writ, which 
must go forth at this time for "the spirit of 
iniquity doth already work." It is time the 
world and the church of God should be aroused 
and enlightened on this truth which was to be 
made known "at the time of the end." And 
now, as we stand at the time of the end, spoken 
of by Daniel, God is ready to give us under- 



34 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

standing concerning the things spoken of by 
His prophets, which should take place at this 
time and proceed to the end of present condi- 
tions. 

It is clear that the present war among the 
nations is fast preparing for the Anti-Christ, 
the great world ruler. The spiritual condi- 
tion of the world is prepared for him, and now 
as the world powers are all broken up, per- 
plexed and troubled like the raging sea, they 
are fast making the way clear for his appear- 
ing- 

It is the law of things that as good intensifies 
to a grand consummation of good, even so will 
evil also intensify to a grand consummation of 
evil. (See Pusey's Lectures, pp. 91, 92.) Light 
and shadow accompany each other j and as the 
light increases the shadow deepens; till when 
the King of Kings comes to establish the good, 
He will be confronted with the king and head of 
all wickedness, sitting in the temple of God, ex- 
alting himself ' ' above all that is called God, or 
that is worshipped, so that he as God, sitteth 
in the temple of God, showing himself that he 
is God." Usurping the very office and place 
of Christ the rightful king. This is how we are 
to know we are in the last times (days), ''the 
time of the end," for John wrote: "Little chil- 
dren, it is the last time (R. Y. last hour) AS YE 
HAVE HEAED that Anti-Christ shall come, 
even now there are many anti-iChrists ; whereby 



THE WORLD'S APPRv/A»^iairH\j- oitiiaio. so 

we know that it is the last time" (hour). "And 
this is that spirit of Anti-Christ whereof YE 
HAVE HEARD that it should come; and even 
now already it is in the world." I John 2:18, 
22; 4:3; H John 7. 

A still more circumstantial account of this 
final monster world-ruler is given in Revelation, 
where John, speaking of the last things to take 
place in this world, says: "I saw a beast rise 
up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten 
horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon 
his heads the name of blasphemy. And the 
dragon (that old serpent, called the devil), gave 
him his power, and his seat, and great author- 
ity. And all the world wondered after the 
beast. And they worshipped the dragon which 
gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped 
the beast, saying. Who is like unto the beast f 
Who is able to, make war with himf And he 
opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to 
blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and 
them that dwelt in heaven. And it was given 
unto him to miake war with the saints, and to 
overcome them ; and power was given him over 
all kindreds, tongues, and nations. And all 
that dwelt upon the earth shall worship him, 
whose names are not written in the book of life 
of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world. If any man have an ear, let him hear." 
Rev. 13. 

What is here pictured in the New Testament 



86 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

was also very fully foreshadowed in the Old. 
Wherever we look we see some fore-intimation 
of this great evil force running parallel with 
the predictions and promises concerning the 
seed of the woman and the Messiah of Israel, 
God's chosen people. In every oppressor that 
came, or was to come, upon the field of history 
in opposition to the plan and rule of God, and 
His people, from Cain to Nimrod, Pharaoh, 
Amalek, Midian, Goliath, and the kings of 
Babylon and Egypt, the holy prophets always 
saw another and final consummation of them 
all, just as they also saw in Moses, Joshua, 
Gideon, David, or others of their class, the pre- 
intimation and type of that great, final, con- 
summate and eternal Savior, Redeemer, P^ing 
and Conqueror of Hell and Death, set before us 
in the person and administration of the 
anointed and enthroned Jesus 'Christ our Lord. 
This coming ruler is a man. He is called the 
"Man of Sin," and is always spoken of in 
Scripture as an Individual person, the same as 
Cyrus, Darius, Nero, Xerxes, Alexander ; for 
he is designated in precisely the same way, by 
the same angel, in the same continuous narra- 
tive. He is specially styled "the prince that 
is to come." Nor can any one read the ac- 
count of him in Daniel and Revelation without 
being impressed that he is some one remarkable 
individual personage. As opposed to Christ he 
must be an individual person. And as Christ 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 37 

is to come in person (Acts 1:11) to be revealed 
with His saints, to appear, to be manifested in 
a visible and open display of Himself to all 
eyes (Rev. 1:7) so Paul tells us thai the "Man 
of Sin" is to be revealed, to show himself, to 
be manifested in a corresponding revelation. 
And when antagonism to God, to Christ, His 
truth, His people and His kingdom stands thus 
finally revealed, it is in the person of one indi- 
vidual man, who is the embodiment of the devil 
and all sin, to offset and supersede the incar- 
nation of Grod in Christ our King. Just as Jesus 
was an individual person, so the Anti-Christ 
will also be. And as Christ was Ood manifest 
in the flesh so Anti-'Christ will be the devil 
manifest in human form. As Christ was the 
Son of God, come from above, so Anti-Christ 
is called the "Son of Perdition," and therefore 
must be the Son of the Devil. Jesus, speaking 
to those who opposed Him, said, "Ye are of 
your father, the Devil." And again, "I am 
from above, ye are from beneath." As Christ 
is to receive a kingdom and rule, so this Anti- 
Christ is to rule over the federated kingdoms 
of this world. This present struggle of war 
will end with the fall of Constantinople, the 
ousting of the Turk from Palestine, the return, 
of Israel and Judah and the inaugauration of 
the Anti-Christ as their king, who will seat him- 
self in the rebuilt temple, and exalt himself 
above all that is called God, and be worshipped 



38 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

as God. His time will be seven years, which 
is the duration of the great tribulation over all 
the world. (Dan. 12:1, 2; Mat. 24:21.) He 
will be the Devil incarnate as Christ was God 
incarnate. (Even as God gives to Christ all 
power in heaven and earth, so Anti-Christ re- 
ceives his power and dominion over the king- 
doms from Satan, the god of this world. (H 
Cor. 4:4; John 14:30; Rev. 13:2.) The great 
marvel about this Man of Sin is that he comes 
from the abyss. He is the "Son of Perdition." 
Christ was the Lord from Heaven ; this opposer 
is from hell. The implication is that he onea 
lived, but received the stroke of death, and 
now his "deadly wound" is healed, and he 
comes forth from perdition in convincing evi- 
dence of his real identity, and who returns 
again to take the lead in the administrations 
upon earth, to the great wonder and astonish- 
ment of the whole world. It is by the Devil's 
power that he is revived, just as all demonism, 
necromancy, and witchcraft are of the Devil. 
The Devil showed Christ all the kingdoms of 
the world, and said to Him: All these things 
will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and wor- 
ship me. There certainly was supernaturalism 
here. This offer, from the "Prince of this 
world," the holy Christ spurned. But event- 
ually Satan finds one to accept his conditions. 
This beast is a worshipper of the Devil, and 
in return he gets what was proposed to Christ. 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 39 

The Devil makes over the infernal dominion 
into his hands, brings him from perdition, and 
constitutes him his great viee-regent in the 
sovereignty of the world during the great trib- 
ulation. In some sense he becomes the incar- 
nation of the Devil, and his manifestation to 
take dominion over the affairs of this world 
will be "after the working of Satan, with all 
power and signs and lying wonders, and with 
all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them 
that perish." (II Thes. 2:9-12.) Here we meet 
with an extraordinary being; with a man alto- 
gether different from anything ever beheld in 
humanity before — with one who is endowed 
with all the power from the Devil himself. 
"And all the world wondered after the beast." 
"We are now in the time when the whole world 
is forgetting God (Ps. 9:17), putting God aside, 
and "worshipping the creature more than the 
Creator." It is the time when man is being dei- 
fied, and taking the place which alone belongs 
to God. It is the time of setting man in the 
place of prominence, both in state and church, 
and receives the admiration of the whole world. 
We have arrived to the place that nothing can 
fee done unless man does it. The supernatural 
in religion, as coming from the Almighty God, 
is done away, and nothing is of importance 
unless done by some man or men. Ahab and 
Jezebel have come again on the scene with their 
troupe of false prophets, and the time is at 



40 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

hand for the true sacrifice to be put on the 
altar, that God may answer by fire and the 
true worship of Jehovah to be known. When the 
true and living God is put away, a false god 
is set up, and worshipped, and is adored by 
false teachers and the duped subjects under 
strong delusion like the false prophets of Baal. 
Man-made government >and man-made church 
is what we have left to us today since the spirit 
of Anti-Christ has come in with such force and 
ruled out the work of the Holy Spirit. And 
the man-made church and the government are 
joined in one, and are dominated by one per- 
vading spirit which tends to dethrone Christ 
and enthorne self. The very spirit of this law- 
less, selfish one is abounding in every move- 
ment in this world now ! The time is right now, 
that you must belong to some order, or some 
movement, and wear a sign (a hadge) of that 
order or organization. That is, you must wear 
the name of the order or organization to which 
yon belong. Unless you do, you will not have 
any standing or prestige in certain rings and 
circles. Is it not a fact, that unless you have 
your name enrolled, and belong to some incor- 
porated, chartered church you are looked upon 
with suspicion, and counted a fanatic? Ever 
since the days of Nimrod's four kingdoms in 
the land of Shinar, they have been organizing, 
incorporating and joining until God's way on 
earth is again corrupted as before the flood. 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 41 

(Gen. 10:8-10; Gen. 6:11-13; Isa. 24.) It is so 
now that men cannot get positions in certain 
trades unless they are members of some order. 
Is not this spirit of iniquity which Paul spoke 
of that would come in the last days? (11 Thes. 
2:7.) By referring to the doings of the Anti- 
Christ (Rev. 13), we see clearly the present 
doings among men today is full of his spirit, 
and are nearing his coming. All his subjects 
will be branded with a mark (a sign) in their 
right hand or in their foreheads. The pins 
and badges of today answer for that sign. No 
one can buy or sell unless they have the mark 
of the beast. In being his slave subjects in 
government they will be the dupes of the two- 
horned beast in one universal religion, and will 
worship the image of the beast, who receives his 
power from the Devil. So it is certainly a Devil 
worship. So are we rapidly moving on to the 
final end — the awful crisis is at the door! To 
receive the mark of the beast, means certain 
irreversible damnation. There is unquestion- 
ably no retrieve, no place of repentance is 
found for those who receive the mark of the 
beast and number of his name. The smoke of 
their torment ascendeth up forever and ever. 
(Rev. 14:9-11.) 

Now is the time to be wise and repent and 
renounce the spirit of Anti-Christ (spirit that 
worketh in the "children of disobedience." 
Eph. 2:2.) "Come out from among them and 



42 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

be ye separate, saith the Lord," (II Cor. 
6:14-18.) 

Listen at that last eall from heaven to Israel 
just before the last and final crash on Baby- 
lon: "Come out of her, my people, that ye be 
not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive 
not her plagues." (Rev. 18: 4-10.) 

What God calls Israel to do under the actual 
reign of Anti-Christ, He calls us to do today, 
in the time of the spirit of Anti-Christ. It is 
the only way to clear ourselves from his damn- 
ing mark when he has come to his full. 



THE ANTI-CHRIST AND HIS ASSOCIATE. 



Turning to the thirteenth chapter of Revela- 
tion we have a fully developed picture of the 
two characters who are to have the affairs of 
this world in hand during the great tribula- 
tion. They are called Beasts. They have noth- 
ing of the divine nature in them, or in their 
administration. Peter and Jude, speaking of 
the false prophets and teachers which should 
come in the last days, spoke of them as "nat- 
ural brute beasts," who should perish in their 
own corruption (Jude 10; II Pet. 2). These 
two beasts are the full embodiment and cul- 
mination of all "spiritual wickedness" of all 
time which worked in the "children of disobe- 
dience." (Eph. 2:2.) 

The Anti-Christ, the Beast from the sea, 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 43 

though an individual, is not alone. He has the 
Beast from the earth as his associate to manip- 
ulate the religious powers during his reign. 
The carnally minded have always clamored 
for a religion that would commend itself to the 
world, and in this second Beast they have it 
to the full, a religion without God, without the 
hlood, without divine love, without the hope of 
heaven or the fear of hell. A religion built 
upon the fallen condition of Adam's posterity 
with the Devil as the anti^God, the Beast from 
the sea as the Anti-Christ, the Beast with two 
horns like a lamh as the anti-Holy Ghost, and 
the deceived nations Avith the mark of the heast 
in their foreheads the membership. The eter- 
nal Godhead is a Trinity, Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost. The Godhead of the Father, of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the 
glory equal, and the majesty co-equal. The 
Father a person, the Son a person, the Holy 
Ghost a person. Such as the Father is, such 
is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. 

The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the 
Holy Ghost eternal. Yet they are not three 
eternals, but one eternal. The Father is Al- 
mighty, the Son is Almighty, and the Holy 
Ghost is Almighty, and they three are one unity, 
compose one Almighty. So the Father is God, 
the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God; and 
yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So 
likewise the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and 



44 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

the Holy Ghost is Lord; and yet they are not 
three Lords, but one Lord. (Eph. 4:5.) 

The Father is eternal, neither created nor 
begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not 
created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of 
the Father and of the Son, neither created nor 
begotten, but proceeding from them. So then 
there is not three Fathers, nor three Sons, nor 
three Holy Ghosts, but one Father, one Son, 
and one Holy Ghost. 'So the Trinity in Unity 
is to be worshipped. Over against this Trinity 
of the eternal Godhead stands the infernal trin- 
ity of the anti-Godhead. As the full embodi- 
ment of all truth and good culminated in the 
Son and the Holy Ghost, so all error and evil 
of this world comes out in this trinity of heP. 
First is the unseen and hidden father, the 
Dragon. The next is the seven-headed and ten- 
horned Beast from the sea, "the Son of Perdi- 
tion," begotten of the Devil, who dies, and 
revives again, and reappears on -jarth, after 
having been in the invisible world, and is 
awarded the power and throne of his father, 
the Devil. And with them comes the third, the 
two-horned Beast from the earth, who proceeds 
from the Dragon Father and Dragon S-n, for 
he exerciseth all the authority of the first Beast 
in his presence, carrying into living and vital 
effect the Satanic will of both Satan and the 
Anti-Christ. So in this we see three distinct-per- 
sonalities, the Devil, the Anti-^Christ, and "The 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 45 

False Prophet ; ' ' and these three are one, carry- 
ing out one infernal administration in this 
closing age. The Devil as Ajiti-God; the teu- 
horned Beast, his son, the Anti-Christ ; and the 
two-horned Beast from the earth, proceeding 
from and operating in the interest of both, is 
Anti-Holy Ghost. And these three together are 
hell's trinity in operation when iniquity has 
come to the full. 

In the Bible symbols the sea represents the 
restless, perplexed and disturbed condition of 
the masses of humanity; the earth represents 
established civilization; the mountains reprp 
sent human governments and kingdoms; the 
waters symbolize peoples, multitudes, nations 
and tongues. The ten horns represent ten 
powers. The seven heads are federated king- 
dO'ms, inasmuch as they are upon one body. 

The first Beast coming up out of the sea with 
seven heads and ten horns, spotted like a leop- 
ard, feet like a bear and a mouth as the mouth 
of a lion, is given power, a throne and great 
authority. He exercises dominion over tribes, 
land peoples, and tongues, and nations. He has 
control of buying and selling. He makes laws 
and chages times. He fixes the conditions by 
which all commerce is carried on. He enacts 
laws and gives authority to slay every one who 
will not come under his regulations. He has 
complete control of all the affairs of this world, 
both state and church. Every tribe, and tongue 



46 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

and nation is included under the dominion of 
this Beast. The sea out of which he conies is 
the perplexed, disturbed and restless condition 
of the whole masses of humanity over the whole 
world. That condition is upon us now, and as 
the spirit of the Anti-Christ pervades the entire 
globe we know that his time is at hand. The 
second Beast in Revelation 13 :11, which comes 
up out of the earth, two horns like a lamb, is 
the false prophet, working under the power and 
dominion of the Anti-Christ. As the first Beast 
is the chief ruler in the governmental affairs 
under Satan with all power and dominion, so 
the second Beast, the false prophet, with the 
Dragon speech, has control, under the first 
Beast, of the ecclesiastical realm in the new 
religion or new worship set up by the Anti- 
Christ and causeth all, both small and great, 
rich and poor, free and bond, to receive the 
mark of the Beast, and cause all that dwell on 
the earth to worship the first Beast. And all 
who will not be put to death. As the spirit 
of Anti-Christ in all past time heads up into 
one great man of sin with all authority from 
the eternal region, so the spirit of all false 
prophets in all past ages head up, and has its 
full and final consummation in the one false 
prophet now before us. Christ said: ''There 
shall arise false Christ and false prophets, and 
shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch 
that if it were possible they shall deceive the 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 47 

very elect." (Mat. 24:24.) And Peter tells 
us that their very purpose in setting up another 
religion is to deny the Lord, and, as a result, 
bring upon themselves swift destruction. Israel 
will have returned to Palestine, rebuilt their 
ancient temple and restored their ancient wor- 
ship as told by Daniel, and then shall the Anti- 
Christ and the false prophet come, and for a 
time they shall flourish, but at the end of the 
first three and a half years, as God begins to 
move among His people, the Anti-Christ will 
begin to persecute God's people, and cause the 
daily sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and 
to make war with the saints, at which time be- 
gins the "Battle of Armageddon," and then 
shall the nations co-me up against Jerusalem 
to battle. (Dan. 9:27; Rev. 16:13-16,- Zeeh. 
14; Rev. 19:11-21.) "Then shall the Lord go 
forth, and fight against those nations, as when 
He fought in the day of battle." 

New forms of government in confederation 
under the rulership of the Anti-Christ as the 
chief director of all the confederated king- 
doms, and a new organized religion under the 
second Beast, the false prophet, who causes all 
to worship the image of the first Beast, who re- 
ceives his power and dominion from Satan. 
This false prophet presents himself as the 
bearer and interpreter of the absolute truth, 
the master and prophet of all that can right- 
fully demand the attention and oibedience of 



48 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

any being. And what he thus professes and 
claims, he also proposes to prove and demon- 
strate by exhibiting a supernatural control of 
all the forces and powers of nature. "And he 
doeth great miracles, he deceiveth those that 
dwell on the earth by reason of the signs which 
it was given him to work in the presence of the 
Beast." Miracles have ever been the chief evi- 
dence of the presence of what is worshipful 
and divine. It is by seeing and experiencing 
what is manifestly above all natural human 
power, and what cannot be accounted for on 
natural principles, that the human mind is 
forced to a conviction of the presence of some 
great and worshipful potency superior to na- 
ture. Moses evidenced Jehovah's almightiness 
and his own legation as God's prophet, by such 
supernatural demonstrations, till the most 
subtle unbelief was compelled to admit and con- 
fess that it was "the finger of God." It was 
by the divine supernatural demonstrations 
which Jesus proved His Messiahship, and con- 
vinces forever that He is a teacher sent from 
'God, as Nicodemus confesses that "no man can 
do these miracles which thou doest except God 
ibe with him." It was through mighty signs 
and wonders by the power of the Holy Ghost 
that the apostles and early church made their 
conquest and established the truth of the gos- 
pel for all ages to come. And this arch-prophet 
of falsehood and false religion knows well how 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 49 

needful and mighty is the force of miracles 
to set up his work, and to secure belief in his 
claims. The religion of the Lord Jesus Christ 
is a religion of miracles, and to make his decep- 
tions appear only the true and rightful religion 
he must mimic all that super-naturalism on 
which the true faith rests. In this he sets him- 
self over against God, and 'becomes the greatest 
worker of signs and wonders the earth has ever 
seen. There has always been a supernatural 
power which is a against God and His truth, 
ever since Satan rebelled and got control of 
man and his dominion on earth. A miracle, 
simply as a work of wonder, is not necessarily 
of God. Satan's counterfeit has always run 
alongside of the supernatural work of divine 
grace and salvation. "Aaron cast down his 
rod before Pharaoh and his servants, and it be- 
came a serpent." This was divine miracle. At 
Pharaoh's call "the magicians of Egypt also 
did in like manner with their enchantments; 
for they cast down every man his rod, and they 
became serpents." Here was devil miracle in 
imitation of the divine. Of the "false Christs 
and false prophets," whom He foretold, He 
says they "shall show great signs and won- 
ders." (Mat. 24:24.) Paul says the appearing 
of Anti-Christ in his reign is "with all power, 
and signs, and lying wonders." 

"Lying wonders" is not unreal wonders. But 
wonders wrought for the support of lies against 



50 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

truth. There is no unreality in these devil 
miracles. They are miracles, and wrought in 
the interest of hell's falsehood. It is prophe- 
sied that "in the last days many shall depart 
from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits 
and doctrines of devils." (I Tim. 4:1.) 

When men have turned from the truth, and 
departed from the faith they will be easily led 
by Satan's lies, backed up by miracles of the 
false prophet. It is intimated in the Divine 
Word that the presents bonds and limitations 
of Satan will be relaxed, the Devil and his de- 
mons have freer range upon this planet, and 
those in love with falsehood and unrighteous 
ness given over to delusions and to worship the 
Devil. (I Kings 22:18, 22; II Chro. 18:18, 22; 
Rom. 1:21, 25, 28.) 

So the false prophet "doeth great miracles, 
and deceiveth those that dwell on the earth 
by reason of the signs which he had power to 
do in the sight of the Beast. With his power 
to call fire down from heaven on the earth in 
the sight of men, to give life to the image of 
the Beast, cause the image to speak, cause all 
to receive a mark of the Beast in their fore- 
heads, stop all from buying and selling except 
those who have the mark, he will impose on the 
■deluded world a new doctrine, demanding a 
new religion. And so with the grand ma- 
chinery thus organized and completed in a 
devil church, united with a devil state, the full 



THE WORLD'S APPROAGHiN 



4-» ?Trra.7*?:? «^TOe x^n^^ " 



•or v^rcj.*: 



consummated devil rule goes into full effect. 
There will be some in those days who cannot 
accept the new worship, and will not receive 
the mark of the Beast. But how do these fare 
at the hands of polished Reason and finished 
Progress? Where is the Liberty, Equality and 
Fraternity for them? The demand is "that as 
many as will not worship the image of the 
Beast shall be killed." As the owners of stock, 
brand and mark their cattle, so are the people 
branded under the Anti-Christ. Rejecting 
Christ the Savior, they must take upon their 
bodies the sign and seal that they are sold and 
held as the chattels of hell ! They have scoffed 
at the followers of the holy Jesus, but Devil's 
"Son of Perdition" comes, in him they will 
believe, and submit to his branding-iron as help- 
less slaves with no choice but to yield or die, 
and perish forever, for there is no salvation 
for any who receives his mark. 

From heaven comes clear and distinct the 
awful sentence: "If any man worship the Beast 
and his image, and receive his mark in his fore- 
head, or in his hand, the same shall drink of 
the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured 
out without mixture into the cup of his inaig- 
nation; and he shall be tormented with fire 
and brimstone in the presence of the holy 
angels, and in the presence of the lamb; and 
the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for- 
ever and ever; and they have no rest day nor 



52 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS, 

night, who worship the Beast and his image, 
and whosoever reeeiveth the mark of his 
name." (Rev. 14:9-11.) This is the fate of all 
who reject Christ the Savior, and spurn the 
extended mercies of God's goodness in these 
days when His judgments are breaking faith 
on sea and land and in the air. 



TRE PRESENT EUEOPSAN ¥/AR NOT THE 
BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 



The age in which we now live, with tlie dis- 
tress of nations, the disturbed condition of 
society, the uncertainty in the affairs of com- 
merce, with the increase of crimes, wars, fam- 
ines, earthquakes, and commotions on sea and 
land, fulfilling the prophecy, warns us to con- 
sider and be watchful. Unmistakably we are 
now in the day of God's preparation, and His 
judgments are on the earth. God is now 
mightily dealing with the nations, bringing to 
a close this present age. As prophesied, it will 
end with perplexity and great tribulation over 
the whole world. The unrest, unsettled, the 
troubled condition throughout the world among 
all nations is ominous of the coming crisis close 
at hand. But through all the breaking up of 
the powers and the overthrow of nations, the 
discerning eye of prophetic faith can see be- 
yond it all the coming King, and the millennial 
glory. The lords and kings of this world must 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 5S 

come down, men must cease from worshipping 
the works of their own hands, and the proud 
and lofty must be brought low. The present Eu- 
ropean war has brought on much agitation, and 
it is in the minds of many that this is the 
"Battle of Armagedden." But it most cer- 
tainly is not, because, first, it is not the place 
of the battle of Armageddon; second, it is not 
the time of the battle of Armageddon; third, 
its purpose is not that of the battle of Arma- 
geddon. The present war has for its object the 
military supremacy over the whole of Europe 
of one of its Caesars, but a great deal more 
than the Kaiserhood of Europe is involved in 
the battle of Armageddon. In the battle of 
Armageddon all the kings of the world will be 
in confederacy with each other against Jehovah 
acd His Messiah. The place of the battle of 
Armageddon is the Great Plain of Esdraelon 
in Palestine, with its headquarters in the an- 
cient fortress city of Megiddo. 

The present war has for its immediate ob- 
ject the making of William II Kaiser of Europe, 
and the Teutons (as formerly the Romans) the 
masters and owners of the whole world. This 
war, in breaking up of the powers and perplex- 
ing the nations, is making way for the return 
of the Jews to Palestine, the coming of the 
Anti-Christ, and the Great Tribulation, which 
will close with the Battle of Armageddon, the 
fall of Babylon, the setting up of the kingdom 



54 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

of God and the reign of Christ for 1,000 years 
as King of Israel. Rev. 16 :12-16 ; Rev. 19 :11- 
21 ; Dan. 2 :44, 7 :18, 22, 27 ; Rev. 11 :15-19 ; Rev. 
30 :l-7. The armies in the Battle of Arma- 
geddon are gathered together by the agency of 
the unclean spirits sent forth by the Dragon 
Trinity to awaken the world to attempt to 
abolish God from the earth. They gather the 
kings of the whole world to battle to unite in 
one universal movement to exterminate the in- 
coming kingdom of the Lamb. Frog-like, they 
do their work amid the Avorld's evening shad- 
ows, and creep and croak, and defile, and fill 
the ears of the nations with their noisy dem- 
onstrations till they set all the kings and 
armies of the whole world in enthusiastic com- 
motion for the final crushing out of the power 
of the Lamb. This is the object of the Battle 
of Armageddon, From one end of the world 
to the other, everything is alive and bristling 
with this thought. East, west, north and south, 
the call to battle sounds ; and kings and nations 
and armies are on the march — on the march to 
the scene of conflict — "to the place which is 
called in Hebrew Harmageddon." It was 
through these devil oracles that they learned 
of Christ's coming to destroy them, and hy- 
these Satanic miracles (Rev. 16:14) they were 
led to believe their armies competent to with- 
stand all the armies of heaven. "Strong de- 
lusion" is upon them (II Thes. 2:9-12). So 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 55 

they went zealously into a great hell-indited 
and hell-sealed compact and confederation, to 
make war with the Lamb, and the cavalry of 
heaven (Rev. 19 :14). You may wonder how ra- 
tional men could be earired to such measures. 
But when people put the truth from them, and 
submit themselves to Satan's lead, into what 
extremes are they not liable to go, and what 
strong delusions are they not liable to embrace. 
And the final outcome of this world's wisdom, 
unbelief and repudiation of the rule and gov- 
ernment of Jesus Christ, is the assembly of all 
the kings and armies, and captains of thou- 
sands, upon the hills and valleys of Palestine, 
from Idumea to the plains of Esdrealon to meet 
the Son of God and His armies in hostile col- 
lision to decide by dreadful battle, whether they 
or He shall have the sovereignty in the earth. 
A great angel anticipates the awful result and 
stationed in the sun, cries with a great voice 
to all the birds of prey to come to the supper 
of the great God, to eat the flesh of kings, cap- 
tains, mighty men, the flesh of horses and they 
that sit on them, and the flesh of men free and 
bond. This tells the story of the Great Con- 
queror going forth conquering and to conquer. 
He rides upon the cherub horse, and flies upon 
the wing of wind. He moves amid storms and 
darkness. He roars out of Zion, and utters His 
voice from Jerusalem, till the heaven and earth 
shake. All the strength of the nations is dashed 



56 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

to fragments before Him, like pottery struck 
with an iron rod. (Ps. 2:9.) The stone from 
the eternal mountain falls on the great statue 
of this world's power, and it is ground to pow- 
der, never again to be regathered. (Dan. 2 :15 ; 
Matt. 21:42; 22:44.) The victory of the Con- 
queror is complete. 

He now assumes the do^minion, and sends 
forth the new law from Jerusalem. After the 
sword of destruction comes the rod of correc- 
tion and reorganization. The world now gets 
the rightful Ruler, a King to rule in righteous- 
ness. (Is. 9:6-7; Matt. 2:2; Luke 1:32-33.) 
Thus ends this present evil age. Thus comes in 
the kingdom of righteousness and the King to 
reign in peace. I only would add that rebel- 
lion against God is death; that no weapon 
formed against Jehovah can prosper ; that those 
who will not have Christ to rule over them must 
go down and be numbered with the wicked na- 
tions that forget God. (Ps. 9 :17.) Though the 
unrighteous nations should wield the power of 
archangels, they cannot - withsand the majesty 
of the Warrior Judge and King who comes 
forth upon the white horse. His sword is 
mightier than Satan, mightier than the Beast 
and his combined armies, mightier than the 
command of infernal miracle over nature's laws 
(Rev. 16:13, 14). Mightier than all the forces 
of earth and hell combined. And that sword ia 
pledged to drink the life blood of all who spura 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 57 

His mercy, despise His laws, and stand out 
against His authority. All who will may in- 
dulge their unbelief and worldly cravings dur- 
ing these days of the long suffering of God, 
and see no disadvantage growing out of it. 
They may get angry at our earnestness, and 
count us heretic when we put before them the 
demands and threatenings of the Almighty. 
"Woe to him that striveth with his Maker." 
There is a deluge of bottled fury yet to be 
poured out on them that refuse to know God 
from which there is no escape, and from whose 
burning and tempestuous surges there is no de- 
liverance. 



NAPOLEON, A FORERUNNER OF ANTI- 
CHRIST. 



(By REV. D. M. PANTON.) 
Napoleon — incomparably the most porten- 
tous figure of the modern world — was a birth 
out of a definite, though local apostasy. So 
deep and determined was this apostasy that the 
revolutionary republic, in order to wipe out the 
Christian faith, not only murdered priests, be- 
cause they were priests, and enthroned a 
goddess of reason in Notre Dame, but changed 
the era from Anno Domini to the era of the 
Revolution ; so that 1792 A. D. became the year 
1: even as Anti-Christ "shall think to change 
i}ie times and the law." (Dan. 7:25.) An 



58 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

identical apostasy- — not local, but universal, 
and not abortive but triumphant — will give 
birth to a still more portentous figure. 

"The Day of the Lord," Paul says, ''will not 
be, except the falling away (the apostasy) come 
first, and (as its dread birth) the Man of Sin 
be revealed" (II Thes. 2:3). A worse than the 
French Eevolution will make such a master of 
legions politically inevitable. For apostasy 
breeds lawlessness; lawlessness breeds anarchy; 
and anarchy creates the military dictator. "I 
am the French Eevolution," said Napoleon. 
"It was I who closed the crater of anarchy, 
and ibrought order out of chaos. It is only I," 
he added, as, in St. Helena, he foresaw Europe 
overrun by revolutionaries, "who can tame 
them."* 

*It is most remarkable that "Napoleon" — 
napos and leon — is a title of the Anti-Christ; 
"a lion is gone up from his thicket, and a de- 
stroyed of nations" (Jer. 4:7). Prof. Richet 
estimates that Napoleon caused the death of not 
less than eight millions of mankind. 

So also Napoleon's creed was extraordinarily 
significant of events yet unfulfilled. He valued 
a creed solely as a check on anarchy, and as a 
buttress to his own authority, and said, "The 
people must have a religion, and this religion 
must be in the hands of the government. It 
will be said that I am a Papist. I am nothing. 
I was a Mohammedan in Egypt; I shall be a 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 59 

Catholic here." So the worship under Anti- 
christ (Rev. 13 :12) will be a compulsory state 
religion. The Emperor's action at his corona- 
tion was most startling. As the Pope who, be 
it remember, stood for God and His Christ in 
him, Napoleon seized the crown, waved the 
Pope aside, and crowned himself — an act, under 
the circumstances, dangerously near self -deifica- 
tion; even as he will do who shall sit "in the 
temple of God, setting himself forth as God" 
(II Thes. 2:4). Napoleon also wrung a special 
dispensation from the Pope, to exempt him, at 
his coronation, from partaking of the Holy 
Communion; his spirit was a true spirit of an 
apostate. The Pope controlled the conscience ; 
therefore he sought to control the Pope.** "He 
was anxious to adorn his brows," says the his- 
torian Alison, "not only with the diadem of the 
conqueror;" he sought to be both emperor and 
pope, but since the age was unripe, he con- 
tented himself with that which will be the in- 
itial proceeding of Anti-Christ (Rev. 17:3) — 
he bore the Scarlet Woman, and upheld the 
Papacy. 

**So, through his ministers of public wor- 
ship, the Anti-Christ will control (Rev 13:12) 
the conscience of mankind. 

Perhaps in no point is the parallel closer or 
more startling than in the identity of plans; 
for plans which, with Napoleon, were abortive, 
will be actual achievements with Anti-Christ. 



60 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

"This little Europe," said Napoleon, "does not 
supply enough of glory for me. I must seek 
it in the East ; all great fames comes from that 
quarter." His heart was always haunted by 
the vision of a great Eastern empire ; he sought 
to swallow up — as Anti-Christ will do (Rev. 
13 :2) — the empires preceding, Rome, which 
were all Eastern ; and only because he was not 
Satan's christ, and one had not yet headed up 
into ripeness, he failed. All his plans 
were laid to this end. Napoleon summoned the 
Jewish Sanhedrin for the first time since the de- 
struction of Jerusalem: Antichrist will be in 
open alliance with Israel (Dan. 9:27). Napo- 
leon drew up plans for the rebuilding of the 
Temple of Jerusalem: Antichrist is to be 
seated in a rebuilt temple as Israel's messiah. 
Designs were found among Napoleon's papers 
after his death for a rebuilt Babylon on a vast 
commercial scale : Babylon will be a metropolis 
of Antichrist (Rev. 16:19). Napoleon actually 
offered himself at its Mahdi, to Islam, even as 
Antichrist will present himself as Messiah to all 
nations. He was an abortive antichrist, born 
out of due time and deeply instructive of the 
fact that the antichristian epoch will be merely 
ripe development of tangible facts and forces 
of today. 

Moreover it was the Roman empire which Na- 
poleon sought to revive; and it is the revival 
of the Roman Empire (Rev. 13:1; 17:9, 10) 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. PI 

wliicli we await. For it is astounding to learn 
that Napoleon was not a Frenchman at all, 
'but a Roman — an Italian ; and it has even been 
claimed — though never proved — that he was a 
lineal descendant of the Caesars. "Never," 
says Dr. Rose, "had the world seen embodied 
might like that of Napoelon's empire:" so the 
very cry will go forth under Antichrist which 
went forth under Corsican — "Who is able to 
war with him." Rev. 13:4. 

At the coronation of Napoleon, the Pope 
chanted, "May Augustus live forever." He 
made his infant son King of the Romans, a title 
belonging exclusively to the heir of the Empire 
of Rome ; and, most remarkable of all, the Aus- 
trian Emperor resigned to Napoleon the head- 
ship of the Holy Roman Empire, which the 
Hapsburgs had retained exclusively for centu- 
ries. In the Louvre, in Paris is Napoleon's 
once worn by Charlemagne, who had earlier at- 
tempted a revival of the mighty Empire of the 
Caesars; a crown destined, probaly, for still 
more dreadful ,brows. Napoleon's was a partial 
restoration of the Roman Empire; the Anti- 
christ's will be a complete restoration. The 
rapidity with which it occurred— Napoleon's 
coronation was within twelve years of the en- 
thronement of the goddess of reason in Notre 
Pame— reveals the appalling swiftness with 
which the apostasy will give birth to the Em- 
pire of Antichrist. 



62 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

How swift we are approaching this Niagara ! 
For both these imperialisms are partially akin, 
and partially antagonistic, to democracy; and 
both, together with the Second Advent of 
Christ, are to occur in the democtratie epoch. 
"So the kingdom shall be partly strong, and 
partly brittle. .. .but they (the iron and the 
clay) shall not cleave one to another "(Dan. 
2: 42, 43). The sovereignity of the throne will, 
at the last, be battling with the sovereignity 
of the people — "those masters of the Houses," 
in the words of Mr. A. J. Balfour, "who, by 
the admission of politicians of all schools, are, 
and ought to be, the final arbiters of our na- 
tional destinies." True democracy dates from 
the French Revolution. It was by the democra- 
cy that Napoleon was thrown up into sovereign 
power, but it was by the iron of the guillotine 
and the bayonet that he kept it. "And in the 
days of those kings (the days of the battling of 
the iron and the clay) shall the God of Heav- 
en set up a kingdom, which shall never be de- 
stroyed, ' ' and which ' ' shall break in pieces and 
consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand 
forever." Dan. 2:'44. 



THE MIDNIGHT CRY. 

Mat. 25:6. 



All who are able to steady themselves, and 
'think sobery," can see that conditions in this 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 63 

world are more startling and critical than ever 
before in its history. All prophecy speaks of 
a coming end of the present order of the af- 
fairs of this world, and that it would grow 
worse and worse to the final end. Such Scrip- 
tures as, "Because iniquity shall abound the 
love of many shall wax cold," many shall de- 
part from the faith, giving heed to seducing 
spirits and doctrines of devils." "Evil men 
and seducers shall wax worse and worse, de- 
ceiving and being deceived," "They shall turn 
away their ears from the truth, and shall be 
turned unto fabels," "There shall be false 
teachers among you, who privily shall bring 
in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord 
that bought thom," "Knowing this first, that 
there shall come in the last days, scoffers, walk- 
.ng after their own lusts," "This know also, 
that in the last days perilous times shall come. 
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, 
3ovetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers," etc. 
And as we thus go from page to page, and 
?rom prophecy to prophecy in the Bible, we see 
the shadow grows darker until we know the 
midnight hour is near, and the midnight cry 
will soon be made, "Behold, the Bridegroom 
cometh, go ye out to meet Him" (Mat. 25:6). 
The nations are mad ! The church is asleep ! 
Sat-n is roaring and devouring! God's judg- 
ments are thundering from heaven, kingdoms 
are tottering, and men's hearts are failing 



64 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

them for fear" (Luke 21:26). Yesterday they 
were saying "world-wide peace," today more 
than half of the world is at war, but tomor- 
row? We are at the midnight hour, the closing 
of the sixth age of this world. All the most im- 
portant events which have been given out by 
ancient prophets have all been fulfilled and 
the way is open for this one event. The four 
great empires which were to rise and fall — 
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Eome — have 
come and gone. Out of the last one the ten 
broken kingdoms were to evolve, and these 
we have today which shall yet be under one 
great ruler in confederation. It is in the days 
of these kingdoms that the God of heaven was 
to set up a kingdom which should break them 
in pieces and stand forever (Dan. 2: 34, 35, 44; 
Heb. 12: 25-29). A series of awful judgments 
were to fall upon the sinful nations before the 
full end, and deal with them who had destroy- 
ed the earth. This, God has been doing during 
the past one hundred years. And now we are 
in the midst of the last, and the entrance of 
Turkey into this presnt war is a new signifi- 
cance — her fall and final ousting from Palestine, 
making the way for Israel's return. The Jew 
is God's greatest sign. It was told them by 
Moses, that "seven times" of judgment would 
pass over them if they would not obey God. 
A '"time" is 360 days, prophetic, which is one 
year. And "seven times" equals 2520 years. 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 65 

Adding 606 years, the time of Israel's cap- 
tivity before Christ, to 1914, brings us down 
to the present time when we may expect Is- 
rael's trials to begin to end. And it is also the 
time of the fulness of the G-entiles, at which 
time God will gather Israel back to their own 
land, and, as prophesied, it Avill be in troub- 
lous times, even the time of Jacob's trouble 
(Jer. 3C:7). 

"Earthquake in divers places," is another 
sign of the end and the immediate coming of 
the Lord. Seven years ago a circle of earth- 
quakes swept around the earth, beginning in 
Southern Italy, sweeping on to the West Indies, 
then West to San Francisco, South to Valpar- 
aiso, S. A., and across the Pacific to Northern 
India, Turkestan and Japan, completely en- 
circling the world. Beginning with the first 
throes of the Messina disaster, on December 
29th, 1908, not a day passed till January 13th 
in which some part of the earth v/as not shaken. 
During that sixteen-day period of continuous. 
disturbance 127,000 lives were lost in Italy; 
alone. ^] 

On January 19th of the same year a shock 
near Smyrna came. Heavy quakes were felt 
in Russia, January 28th, February began with 
a general tremor on the 6th, folloAved by an- 
other in Italy on the 18th. On the 17th, 6,000 
lives lost in Persia. Lisbon shaken April 23d, 
and the next day a mountain collapsed at Ven- 



66 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

tura, Cal. On the 14th of May there were 
slight shocks in Montana, followed the next 
day by another earthquake in Messina. Five 
western states were shaken on May 26th. In 
June there were shocks at Singapore, India, 
on the 4th, in Chile, S. A., on the 8th, and on 
the 12th 100 lives were lost in France. On the 
15th and 16th Southern Greece had a severe 
shock, 30 lives lost. As the present war in 
Europe stands to fill its place in prophecy, God 
added another earthquake, January 13th, to 
the awfulness of the times. It covered an area 
of 300 miles in Italy, with 30,000 deaths in 22 
seconds, besides thousands injured. On April 
\/ &th, 1915, as we write this account, Rome, Italy, 
is shaken with a severe earthquake, which cen- 
tered around Avezanno. Mexico is on the bor- 
der of a famine now. 

"Nation shall rise against nation, and king- 
and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers 
dom against kingdom, and there shall be fam- 
ines and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers 
places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." 
Who would have thought on July 27, when 
there appeared nothing but "peace and safety" 
that within one month's time nine nations 
would be plunged into war? "War that has no 
just cause for its existence. Military suprem- 
acy and the making of William II kaiser of 
Europe is practically the object of this war. 
The following chronology is copied from 
"Word and Work:" 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS, 67 

July 28, 1914 : Austria declared war on Ser- 
via ; and the next day an Austrian force at- 
tacks Belgrade, the Servian capital. 

August 1, 1914: Germany declares war on 
Russia. 

August, 1914 : Germany declares war on Bel- 
gium. 

August 5, 1914: England declares war on 
Germany. 

August 6, 1914: Austria declares war on 
Russia. 

August 8, 1914: Montenegro declares war 
on Russia. 

August 10, 1914: France declares war on 
Austria. 

August 12, 1914: Montenegro declares war 
on Germany. 

August 13, 1914: England declares war on 
Austria. 

August 23, 1914: Japan declares war on 
Germany. 

August 25, 1914: Austria declares war on 
Japan. 

And since the last date other nations have 
joined on both sides until now there are over 
a dozen in it, and who knows 'but that the whole 
world may be involved in it before it ends! 

Why So Many Nations War. 

Why have so many nations gotten into this 
war? Two words will answer the question, 



68 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

namely, ''peace treaties." In the alliance of 
nations, when one gets into war, all her allies 
have to go in with her if necessary or break 
treaty which would only mean war again; 
hence the truth of the prophecy that "they 
shall not escape" or avoid getting into war 
and sudden destruction. Let the nations ol the 
earth make a few more "peace treaties," and 
there will follow a conflict more dreadful than 
now exists in Europe, which will involve the 
whole world ; and out of that universal con- 
flict will come the kingdom and universal reign 
of Antichrist, Depend upon it! for it is com- 
ing as sure as the European war now exists. 
A few more "peace treaties," and a little more 
preparation for "safety" and sudden destruc- 
tion is bound to follow, for "the mouth of the 
Lord hath declared it." — Sel. 

Standing in the midst of all this with over 
twenty millions of men flying at each other 
in a last bloody conflict, leaving in its track 
millions of husbands and fathers wounded and 
dying, consigning to a cold and heartless world 
millions of weeping, heart-broken wives, and 
crying, fatherless children, with the awful con- 
dition increased with thousands and thousands 
of cripples left helpless and penniless and home- 
less, we may well feel to lift up our heads and 
confess that our redemption draweth nigh, as 
Christ said, "There shall be on earth distress 
of nations with perplexity, the sea and waves 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 69 

roaring. Men's hearts failing them for fear, 
and for looking after those things which are 
coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven 
shall be shaken. And when these things begin 
to come to pass, then look up, lift up your 
heads; for your redemption draweth nigh" 
(Luke 21: 25-28). 

These are awful times and the shadow grows 
darker as we look further toward the end. 
God's way is again corrupted on the earth 
(Gen. 6), as in the days of Noah, and His sure 
judgments are going forth breaking up all the 
works of man, and pleading with all flesh. As 
it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in 
the days of the coming of the Son of Man. They 
did eat, they drank, they married wives, they 
were given in marriage until that Noah entered 
into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed 
them all. Likewise also as it was in the days 
of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, 
they sold, they planted, they builded; but the 
same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained 
fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed 
them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when 
the Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17: 26-37; 
2 Pet. 2:4-9). 

And as Noah found grace in the eyes of the 
Lord, and was "a preacher of righteousness, 
bringing in the flood upon the world of the un- 
godly, so, there are those who, in these days 
of corruption, have found grace in the eyes 



70 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

of the Lord (Gen. 6 :9), and there is going forth 
a ministry in these last days for truth and right- 
eousness as mighty to overthrow the works of 
darkness as the preaching of Noah, and as sure 
to possess the earth as he, for Christ says, 
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit 
the earth" (Mat. 5:5). Not only Noah and 
his times, but Ahab and Jezebel and her herd 
of false prophets are on hand again (II Pet. 
2:1), and the ministry of Elijah is again called 
for that the true sacrifice may be laid on the 
altar, that God may again answer with His 
mighty signs and wonders, and put to death the 
prophets of Baal. The mighty man of faith, 
Enoch, who walked with God, and was not 
found because God had translated him, prophe- 
sied of these, saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh 
with ten thousand of his saints, to execute 
judgment upon all, and to convince all that are 
ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds 
Avhich they have ungodly committed, and of all 
their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have 
spoken against Him" (Jude 14). In Isaiah 
26:21, the same judgment is prophecied, "For 
behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to 
punish the inhabitants of the earth for their 
iniquity : the earth shall also disclose her blood, 
and shall no more cover her slain." But be- 
fore the breaking forth of this tribulation judg- 
ment, upon the ungodly, there is a bugle call to 
His ready and waiting people, which is the first 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 71 

resurrection, and the translation of living 
saints. "Come, my people, enter thou into thy 
chambers," (see John 14: 1-4), and shut thy 
doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for 
a little moment, until the indignation be over- 
past" Is. 26:20). "Behold I show you a mys- 
tery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall be 
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye, at the last trump : for the trump shall 
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorrupt- 
ible, and we shall be changed" (I Cor. 15: 51, 
52). Again we find this judgment of the un- 
godly, who walk in their own way, and cor- 
rupt God's way on the earth, prophecied by St. 
Paul, "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, 
taking vengeance on them that know not God, 
and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting 
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and 
from the glory of His power; when He shall 
come to be glorified in His saints, and to be 
admired in all them that believe in that day" 
(2 Thes. 1: 6-10). Coupled with this judgment 
prophecy, is the promise to God's people of 
escape out of those tribulation times. "For the 
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout (see Ps. 47), Avith the voice of the arch- 
angel, and with the trump of God: and the 
dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which 
are alive and remain shall be caught up to- 



72 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

gether with them in the clouds, to meet the 
Lord in the air, so shall we ever be with the 
Lord, wherefore comfort one another with these 
words" (1 Thes. 4: 13-18). And just following 
this wonderful promise the apostle makes an- 
other startling prophetic announcement con- 
cerning the manner of the Lord's apearing: 
''The day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the 
night. For when they shall say, Peace and 
safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon 
them, as travail upon a woman with child, and 
they shall not escape." "As a thief in the 
night," that is the time when people are asleep 
naturally, and are not watching. So it is in 
the end of this six thousand years. The whole 
world is asleep as to the eternal, divine real- 
ities, so that when the Lord comes for His 
waiting ones, the world will be asleep in its 
carnal security, resting in its false hope of 
peace and safety, not kowing that sudden de- 
struction is at their door. In Matthew 24:44, 
Jesus gives warning of these very times: 
"Therefore, be ye also ready, for in such an 
hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh." 
In that hour we are now living. The people 
of this world are thinking about everything 
else but the coming of the Lord Jesus. They 
are carried away by the god of this world, who 
has blinded their eyes and darkened their 
minds (2 Cor. 4: 3-6). It is midnight, and 
the world is slumbering and sleeping only to 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 73 

be awakened by judgment tribulation. It is 
pleasure now without God, knowledge without 
Divine wisdom, culture without redemption, 
form without power (2 Tim. 3:5), and a pro- 
fession without possession. It is the last days, 
and perilous times they are. It is an awful 
thing for people to be on the threshold of de- 
struction and not aware of it. It is shocking 
to think of a family in a house, and it burn- 
ing down on them while asleep. But it is 
true of this present world. The judgment 
fires are kindling, and the smoke is ascending. 
And when we read the account which James 
gives Maraes 5: 1-9), of the last days we can- 
not help but see that we are now in that time, 
and still darker is the days just following. He 
says, "'Ye rich men, weep and howl for your 
miseries that shall come upon j-ou. Your riches 
are corrupted, your gold and silver is cankered, 
ye have heaped treasures together for the last 
days. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth." 
(See Luke 16: 19-31). This very time was also 
shown to the prophet Isaiah, when he says, 
*'And it shall come to pass in the last days," 
etc, "For the day of the Lord shall be upon 
every one that is proud and lofty, and the lofti- 
ness of man shall be bowed down, and the 
haughtiness of men shall be made low, and 
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 
And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, 
and into the caves of the earth for the fear of 



74 THE WORLDS APPROACHING CRISIS. 

the Lord, when He ariseth to shake terribly 
the earth. And in that day a man shall east 
the idols of his silver and gold to the moles 
and to the bats" (Is. 2: 2, 11-12). 

Zephaniah, in his prophecy of the great tribu- 
lation, says, "That day is a day of wrath, (See 
Eev. 6:17), a day of trouble and distress, a 
day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the 
trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and 
against the high towers. And I will bring dis- 
tress upon men, that they shall walk like blind 
men, because they have sinned against the Lord. 
Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able 
to deliver them in the day of the Lord's 
wrath" (Zeph. 1:14-18). 

Under the sixth seal in Revelation, where 
hien are crying for the rocks and mountains 
to fall upon them, and hide them from the face 
of Him that sitteth upon the throne, they know 
full well that the day of wrath has come, as 
they confess, "For the great day of His wrath 
is come, and who shall be able to stand" (Rev. 
6: 12-7). Amos describes this coming of trib- 
ulation judgment as changing the whole world 
of pleasure and mirth into mourning and la- 
mentation. "And it shall come to pass in that 
day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the 
sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the 
earth in the clear day. And I will turn your 
feasts into mourning, and all your songs into 
lamentation ; and I will bring up sackcloth up- 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 75 

on all loins, and baldness upon every head; 
and I will make it as the mourning of an only 
son, and the end thereof as a bitter day" 
(Amos 8: 9-12). The great tribulation describ- 
ed in these Scriptures occupies the time between 
the catching away of the church to meet the 
Lord in the air "(1 Thes. 4: 13-18), and His 
coming as set forth in Revelations 19th chap- 
ter. The first resurrection and the rapture of 
the church takes place just before the tribu- 
lation. This is when He comes as a thief in 
the night (1 Thes. 5: 1-5). At the ending of 
the tribulation He comes with power and great 
glory with His saints, and the armies of heaven 
with Him (Jude 14; Rev. 19: 11-21). 

Just now we are moving rapidly toward this 
great event. The crisis hour is here. The 
events that are to transpire will soon be upon 
us. It's near approach was to be marked by 
abounding wickedness and worldliness on the 
part of the ungodly (Dan. 12:10), and a sleep- 
ing and a slumbering on the part of the 
church, as in the case of the ten virgins who 
went forth to meet the Bridegroom with their 
lamps and oil in their vessels. In view of pres- 
ent conditions, and the future outlook, dear 
friends, what does it mean for us? Have you 
on the fine linen of His righteousness (Rev. 19: 
. .6-10), and oil in your vessels — filled with the 
Spirit? (Ephesians 5:18). This old world will 
be a poor place to live after God's people are 



76 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

taken out of it, and the antichrist takes con- 
trol. We know a little now of oppression, cor- 
ruption and graft. But what will it be when 
our worship shall be under the control of Sa- 
tan and doctrine of demons ? When we shall be 
required to wear a mark, and have a license 
from his government to buy and to sell. Earth's 
darkest days are just ahead, and, alas, for those 
that shall have to pass through that dread trib- 
ulation. It was never meant for the followers 
of Christ. His warning for them was : "Watch 
and pray always that ye may be accounted 
worthy to escape all these things that shall 
come to pass, and to stand before the Son of 
Man" (Luke 21: 34-36). Our place is yonder 
with the Son of Man, not here with the devil. 
Clouds are gathering already, the night is 
here. The Lord is gathering out His friends 
before that dreadful day. The lowly Nazarene 
is knocking at our door, but soon He will come 
as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. It will 
be well for us now, to take very earnest heed 
to James' exhortation concerning these days, 
of lingering mercy, the longsuffering of God, 
and the last call to His church to awake and 
hear the final annuoncement: "Behold, the 
Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him." 

"Be ye also patient; establish your hearts; 
for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh" 
(James 5: 7, 8). 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 77 

BABYLON FALLEN, THE BEAST AND 
FALSE PROPHET TAKEN. 



The history of Babylon dates back in the be- 
ginning with Nimrod in the tenth and eleventh 
chapters of Genesis. It was one of the king- 
doms organized by Nimrod in the land of 
Shinar. We learn that inhabitants of the earth, 
who were yet of one language, journeyed from 
the east, and it seems that they were under 
the leadership of Nimrod, and under him be- 
gan the first great rebellion against God, which 
brought the confusion of tongues. Against the 
command of God, it was there undertaken to 
build a city and a tower whose top may reach 
unto heaven, and to make themselves a name 
that they might not be scattered upon the face 
of the earth. He "began to be a mighty one 
in the earth." He was the organizer of an 
arbitrary imperialism over against the patri- 
archal order. He was the first king, and thus 
the beginner of all kingcraft and tyranny which 
have since so oi)pressed the inhabitants of the 
earth. It v/as further arranged to make for 
themselves "a name," a sign, a token, a banner 
or badge, a mark of confederation, fellowship, 
an organized unity (Jer. 13 :11 ; 33 :9 ; Ezk. 
39.13 ; Zeph. 3 :8, 9, 20). Against God they had 
gone into confederation, and they wished a 
badge, something by which they could be 
known, and which they could all glory in as the 
center of their unity. 



78 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

Joseph A. Seiss says: "Babel, in the lan- 
guage of their times, means THE GATE OF 
GOD ; but not the God of Noah and Shem, for 
the whole proceeding was in antagonism to 
the true God and His will and command. Thus, 
in the very name of the place, we have the in- 
timation and proof that these Nimrodic pro- 
ceedings were not only the organization of a 
new and oppressive government, but with it, 
as an essential part of it, the inauguration of 
a new and idolatrous religion, the parent apos- 
tasy of the post-deluvian world." Then they 
had a kingdom, a rule, a government with man 
as king, as ruler, so conditions are the same 
today. In those days, God overruled instead of 
ruling among the kingdoms of men. And so it 
is today. They said, "Go to, let us build us a 
city and a tower, whose top may reach unto 
heaven." This they have been doing ever since. 
Wherever upon the face of the earth they should 
meet each other they were to be known by 
their confederated name, sign, mark or badge. 
By this they were ruled in all their buying, 
selling, building, marrying, traveling, their 
worship, or whatever they did, must be done 
under this corporate name. 

All the kingdoms and governments of this 
world have their ensign, or banner. The Eagle, 
the Lion, the Bear, etc. Under these are other 
corporations with their names, signs and badges 
by which they are known, and under which they 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 79 

do business and worship. This world with all 
its kingdoms and dominions with its names, 
badges and signs, together with every incor- 
porated organization with its name, sign and 
badge, with all commerce is great Babylon of 
today. Thus everything outside of the church 
and kingdom of God is Babylon. 

It is the same old Babylon only on a larger 
scale, and covering the entire earth, and which 
shall soon be ruled by Anti-Christ. This is the 
great Babylon which came in remembrance be- 
fore God, when the seventh angel poured out 
his vial in the air, when the earthquake came, 
the cities of the nations fell, islands fled, moun- 
tains moved, hail stones fell upon men about 
fifty-six pounds weight (weight of a talent), 
"and men blasphemed God" (Rev. 16:16-21). 
This was in the time, or closing period of the 
Battle of Armageddon. 

There was also a city Babylon, which has 
been desolate for centuries. As the Anti-Christ 
stands over against Christ, and as the kingdoms 
of this world stand over against God's kingdom, 
so the city Babylon stood over against Jeru- 
salem. And as Jerusalem will be rebuilt, so 
the city Babylon will be rebuilt in the land of 
Shinar, and will be the seat of all great com- 
merce for the whole world. Designs were found 
among Napoleon's papers for a rebuilt Baby- 
lon on a vast commercial scale. It will be the 
head city of the nations, and the great metrop- 



80 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

oils of the Anti-Christ (Rev. 16:19). But its 
fall is certain and all its systems with it. The 
announcement is by an angel from heaven^ 
whose glory lightens the earth. "And he cried 
mightily with a strong voice saying, Babylon 
the great is fallen, is fallen." But before the 
words of the mighty angel goes into final ef- 
fect we hear a voice from heaven calling to 
Abraham's seed: "Come out of her, my people, 
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that 
ye receive not her plagues." Wherever there 
is great trade and banking we may expect to 
find Jews. (See Jer. 51.) 

The particular calamities to break forth are 
death, mourning, famine, and burning. When 
we take into consideration that under the sixth 
seal the river Euphrates was dried up, we can 
understand how these calamities can come with 
awful destruction. All her shipping would be 
stopped. The fertility of her gardens and coun- 
try around would be turned to dust. The stag- 
nant filth, the decaying vegetation for the space 
of 1,500 miles would breed sickness and death 
no skill could stay. Fires break forth, and there 
is no water to extinguish them. The whole city 
burns to ashes, and its population with it, "as 
in the daj^s of Sodom and Gomorrah." In 
•connection Avith these plagues the voice from 
heaven says: "Reward her even as she re- 
warded you, and double unto her double accord- 
ing to her works ; in the cup which she hath 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 81 

filled fill to her double. How much she hath 
glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much 
torment and sorrow give her." In every form 
she has existed through all the ages past, she 
has been holding up the golden cup of her abom- 
inations by which she has intoxicated and de- 
mented the nations, peoples and tongues, and 
filled the whole earth with her idolatry and 
fornication. "Double unto her double according 
to her works." Her evil is double, and she 
must drink her own cup double. She is both a 
system of abominations, and a city of abom- 
inations, and she must drink her cup 
double. Great Babylon is a great commer- 
cial city, as all the cities of the nations are, and 
by her bewitching sorcery she leads all the 
nations astray. If a godless commerce can be 
made to appear as the great and only available 
civilizer, if it can show its end to be the welfare 
of individuals and the prosperity of nations, if 
its office is the development of the resources 
of the whole earth, and for that purpose visits 
every land and traverses every sea; if it is the 
great stimulant to intellectual effort, the re- 
warder of inventive genius and engineering 
skill, the nations of earth would hail its under- 
takings, and admire its enterprise. Kings and 
rulers would become its patrons. The whole 
world would celebrate its triumph as ushering 
in of a millennium. This is the sorcery with 
which great Babylon leads all nations astray. 
But in her greatness with her hand on the pulse 



82 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

of th3 uiiverse she falls to rise no more. And 
when it comes to pass the whole world is 
thrilled at the sight. The main artery of earth's 
glory is cut, commerce dies, and every govern- 
ment feels its life-blood ebbing out. 

First, "the kings of the earth wail and 
mourn." They were in close affinity with her, 
and had lent themselves to her bewitching 
schemes and policy. But now they stand afar 
off in dread of her torment. The greatness of 
her enchanting power they once praised, but 
now they are mourners at her heaps of ruin. 
"Alas! alas! that great city Babylon, that 
mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment 
come!" 

The next mourners are the "merchants of 
the earth." They shall weep and mourn over 
her, for no man buyeth their merchandise any 
more. (Rev. 18:11.) There never was so great 
a market as that which grows up with the re- 
vival and restoration of Babylon. The entire 
world becomes alive with traffic in "merchan- 
dise of gold and silver and precious stones, and 
of pearls, fine linen, and purple, and silk, and 
scarlet, and all thyne wood, and vessels of 
ivory, and vessels of most precious wood, and 
of brass, and iron and marble, and cinnamon, 
and aloes, and onitments and frankincense, and 
wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and 
beast, and sheep, and chariots, and bodies and 
souls of men." Never before was there such a 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS 8Z 

desire for these things ; the world never before 
experienced so great a harvest. Everything 
looks like perfect triumph for earth's wisdom. 
But suddenly this mighty commerce stops, the 
mercantile circles of the whole world. are par- 
alyzed. And when the news of such disaster 
is flashed around the world, and they know the 
fruits that their souls lusted after are departed 
and they shall find" them no more at all, by 
which they become rich ; they will stand weep- 
ing and wailing, and saying, Alas ! alas ! for in 
one hour so great riches is come to naught. 
And every shipmaster, and all the company in 
ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, 
stood afar off, and CRIED when they saw the 
smoke of her burning, and they cast dust in 
their heads, and CRIED (see Zeph. 1 :14), weep- 
ing and wailing. From every throne, from 
every city, from every office, from every seat 
of trade, from every counting room, from every 
bank (Treasures Is. 2:7-21), from every market, 
from every home, from every nation who have 
been made drunk by the wine of her fornica- 
tion, and deceived by her bewitching trade and 
traffic, comes forth the voice of woe, weeping 
and wailing. But while the earth is f.lled with 
lamentation, terror and woe, a grand jubilation 
fills the heavens. As the great, the mighty and 
the rich ones of this world cry over the fall of 
great Babylon, the hosts on high pour out theil* 
jubilant Alleluias. As soon as the harlot city 



84 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

went down amid her judgment fires, a voice 
of much people in heaven begin their jubilee 
of praise and rejoicing, saying, ** Alleluia! sal- 
vation, and glory, and honor, and pe?7^er unto 
the Lord our God ; for truth and righteousness 
are His judgments; for He hath judged the 
great whore which did corrupt the earth with 
her fornications, and hath avenged the blood ot 
His servants at her hands. And again they said. 
Alleluia. And her smoke rose up forever and 
ever. And the four and twenty elders, and the 
four living creatures fell down and worshipped 
God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen: Al- 
leluia. And a voice came out of the throne, 
saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants, 
and ye that fear Him, both small and great. 
And I heard as it were the voice of a great 
multitude, and as the voice of many waters, 
and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying. 
Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reign- 
eth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor 
to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, 
and His wife hath made herself ready. And to 
her was granted that she should be arrayed in 
fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is 
the righteousness of saints. And He saith unto 
me, write ; Blessed are they which are called 
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And 
saith unto me. These are the true sayings of 
God." (Hev. 19:1-10.) What the kings, mer- 
chants and shipperson earth mourn and lament 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 85 

as awful destruction, is celebrated in heaven as 
divine salvation. Two antagonizing principles 
stand before us; God's revelation, and the sen- 
sual wisdom of men. The system of God's re- 
demption through His Son, and that which men 
propose to work out for themselves. Many and 
long has been the battles with blood and foun- 
tains of tears, imprisonments and deaths, but 
the battles are over and the victory is won 
by Him who purchased us by His own blood 
and made us kings and priests to reign with 
Him in the coming ages. 

And now it remains to notice the closing acts 
of the World's Redeemer, who comes forth 
seated upon the cherub horse and the armies 
of heaven following Him, Then the kings of 
the earth make their final stand. They gather 
their armies together to make war against'Christ 
and His army. He first meets his great op- 
poser, the Beast, which is the Anti-Christ. No 
sword smites him. He is not slain. He does 
not die. He is incapable of corporeal death as 
he has once died and been resurrected by the 
Devil's power. It is simply stated of him: 
''And the Beast was taken, and with him the 
False Prophet, that wrought miracles before 
him, with which he deceived them that had re- 
ceived the mark of the Beast, and them that 
worshipped his image. THESE BOTH WERE 
CAST ALIVE INTO A LAKE OF FIRE BURN- 
ING WITH BRIMSTONE." Then the rem- 



86 THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 

nant of the armies of this world were slain, 
and the fowls and the beasts of the field were 
bidden to the supper of the great God, to eat 
the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains, 
and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of 
horses, and of them that sit on them, and the 
flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small 
and great. ' ' (Ezk. 39 :17-22.) Then the Dragon, 
that Old Serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, 
was bound by the angel a thousand years, and 
cast into the bottomless pit, and set a seal upon 
him that he should deceive the nations no more, 
till the thousand years should be fulfilled. Then 
begins Christ's reign on the throne of His 
Father David (Luke 1:31-33). "And when the 
thousand years are expired, Satan shall be 
loosed out of his prison. And at the close of 
the battle of Gog and Magog, Satan is cast into 
the lake of fire where the Beast and the False 
Prophet are, and shall be tormented day and 
night forever and ever." Then follows the 
Great White Throne judgment when the 
(wicked) dead stand before God and are judged 
out of the books according to their works. 
''And whosoever was not found written in the 
book of life was cast into the lake of fire." 
(Rev. 20:11-15.) 

Then comes the new heaven and the new 
earth, and "the holy city, the New Jerusalem, 
coming down from God out of heaven, pre- 
pared as a bride adorned for her husband. And 



THE WORLD'S APPROACHING CRISIS. 87 

God shall wipe away all tears; there shall be 
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, 
neither shall there be any more pain; for the 
former things are past away. And He that sat 
upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all 
things new." (Rev. 21:1-7.) 

NOTE — For a full and comprehensive work 
on Revelation, get Joseph A. Seiss' three vol- 
umes of 1,400 pages. Price, $2.50. 



Our Life In Christ 



CHAPTERS IN THE BOOK 

1. Our Life in Christ. 

2. Our Place in Christ. 

3. The Old and New Creation 

4. The Believer Before God. 

5. The Abundant Life. 

6. The Yielded Life. 

7. Our Life of Prayer. 

BIBLE READINGS 



8. The Renewing of the Holy- 
Ghost. 

9. Underlying Principles of Di> 
vine Healing. 

10. Three Tenses of Faith in 
Divine Healing. 

11. The Healing Touch. 

12. Scripture Testimonies of 
Divine Healing. 



Sickness According to Scripture. 
He Offered Himself. 
The Meat Offering. 
Abide in Christ. 
The Precious Blood. 
Together in Christ. 
Abraham, The Friend of God. 



The /Walk of the Redeemed. 

Be Filled. 

Out, Into, Up. 

The Everlasting Gospel. 

Clothed With Humility. 

Chosen in Him. 

Christ the Way, Etc. 



This book is written from a pentacostal standpoint 
and, without a doubt, is filling a long-felt need among 
spiritual people everywhere. ^ 

It is evident that God's approval is upon this book, 
and is making it a blessing everywhere it is read. It 
Would take more space than we have in this paper to 
tell of all the wonderful things this book is doing among 
the people where it has gone. One brother said the 
book was doing a great work throughout the country 
where he had sold it, in leading people into the deeper 
things of the Lord. "I have a wonderful testimony to send 
you from the effects of your book," writes a nsinister. 

An evangelist writes: "The book is fine, helpful, sug- 
gestive, deeply inspiring and deeply spiritual." I am 
praying that all who need the help this book has for 
them may order at once. Until further notice I will 
send the book for $1.00 post paid, and Grace and Truth 
for 1915. WRITE ADDRESS PLAINLY. 

L. P. ADAMS, Memphis, Tenn. 




021 547 541 4 




